Asia top stories – weekly summary

SINGAPORE (ICIS)–Here are the top stories from ICIS News Asia and the Middle East for the week ended 30 April 2021.

NE Asia C2 gains on Japan production issue; downstream outlook weak
Northeast Asia’s spot ethylene (C2) prices rose this week amid concerns that a production issue at key Japanese exporter ENEOS Corp’s facility could exacerbate the impact of cracker turnarounds on the regional supply.

Asian PX near term supply balanced to tight, dynamics shift on new start up
Asian paraxylene (PX) supply is expected to stay balanced to tight in the near term, with market dynamics likely to gradually shift upon the startup of Zhejiang Petrochemical’s new phase II aromatics project.

India petrochemical demand crumbles amid second COVID-19 wave
Facing possibly its worst humanitarian disaster, coronavirus-ravaged India is racing against time to contain a second wave of deadly infections, with effects rippling through its petrochemical industry.

Asia BPA snaps 14-week gains; market outlook cloudy
Asia’s spot bisphenol A (BPA) prices have stabilised after 14 consecutive weeks of gains, weighed down by weakness in China’s domestic values, with the market outlook cloudy amid surging coronavirus cases in India.

Asia MTBE at 19-month high; arbitrage window to China open
Asia’s methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) prices rose to their highest level since September 2019, underpinned by strong demand from China over the past few weeks and stable-to-firm crude oil prices.