Europe top stories: weekly summary

LONDON (ICIS)–Here are some of the top stories from ICIS Europe for the week ended 12 March 2021.

Europe PP spot offers soar in undersupplied market
Polypropylene (PP) spot offers in Europe have reached the unprecedented €2,000/tonne mark and even breached this level this week.

UK-EU automotive, chemicals trade hit hard in January as Brexit deal kicks in
Prior stockpiling and new Brexit trade regulations caused a fall of 40.7% in UK exports to the EU in January, month on month, as the country ended its membership of the 27-nation bloc’s single market, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said on Friday.

Logistics crisis to persist into Q3 as availability trumps pricing – Brenntag CEO
The global logistics crisis is expected to last at least until the third quarter of 2021, and is making availability of product more important than price, according to the CEO of Brenntag, the world’s largest distributor.

2021 crude demand to undershoot 2019 on transport sector woes – OPEC
A projected rebound in crude oil demand in 2021 is likely to leave consumption substantially below 2019 levels, as continuing transport sector weakness bites into the pace of the recovery, OPEC said on Thursday.

Europe ECH trends above cost ratio for March on persistent global supply strain
An epichlorohydrin (ECH) supply strain in Europe and globally, downstream strength and spring turnarounds are driving the continued uptrend above the cost ratio for March, and the supply concerns could persist for at least another quarter.

Resurgent sulphuric acid offers could be reaching peak
Sulphuric acid offer prices from Asia have executed a neat U-turn in the last year, moving from minus $20/tonne FOB (free on board) South Korea/Japan in March 2020 to $60-70/tonne FOB last week.

Germany’s Evonik in consortium to create pan-European green hydrogen infrastructure
Evonik has joined a partnership to create infrastructure for green hydrogen across Europe, the German chemicals producer said on Tuesday.

Europe acetic acid spot hits a record high on critical supply, robust demand
Extremely tight supply and strong demand have pushed acetic acid spot prices to a record high in Europe, according to information gathered by ICIS.