
News library
ICIS premium news services
Our subscription platform provides access to our full range of breaking news and analysis.
Viewing 1-10 results of 55086
SINGAPORE (ICIS)–Asian propylene (C3) prices
have fallen for four consecutive weeks on the
back of poor polypropylene (PP) performance.
Markets editor Julia Tan speaks with senior
editor Jackie Wong on market fundamentals in
the Asian C3 and PP markets.
Turnarounds provide limited support for C3
on the back of ample Chinese supply
Q3 PP market fundamentals likely to remain
similar to Q2
Market participants await Chinese demand
recovery
01-Jun-2023
SINGAPORE (ICIS)–The US’ House of
Representatives has approved a deal to suspend
the $31.4tr debt ceiling late on Wednesday,
allowing the country to borrow more money and
avoid a default.
The agreement suspends the debt ceiling until 1
January 2025.
Oil prices rose mid-morning following the,
reversing earlier losses.
Product ($/bbl)
Latest (at 02:46
GMT)
Previous
Change
Brent August
73.13
72.60
0.53
WTI July
68.57
68.09
0.48
The US House voted 314-117 to send the
legislation to the US Senate, which must
vote on the bill later this week before
President Joe Biden can sign it into law. It is
not yet clear when the Senate will vote.
The US government is forecast to hit its
borrowing limit on 5 June. A default could
cause financial markets to freeze up and ignite
an international crisis.
US lawmakers have never failed to pass a
suspension or increase in the debt ceiling
before the Treasury ran out of cash to pay its
obligations.
On Thursday morning in Asia, oil prices were
trading lower, weighed down by data from the
American Petroleum Institute (API) which showed
a rise in US crude inventories last week,
raising oversupply concerns.
Both crude benchmarks closed lower overnight on
demand concerns following poor economic data
from China and a firm US dollar.
China’s official Purchasing Managers Index
(PMI) showed that manufacturing activity in the
world’s second-biggest economy contracted
further in May amid dwindling demand.
The manufacturing PMI in May fell by more than
expected to 48.8 in May, down from 49.2 in
April.
01-Jun-2023
SINGAPORE (ICIS)–Caixin’s China manufacturing
purchasing managers’ index (PMI) picked up from
49.5 in April to 50.9 in May, marking the first
expansion in three months, the Chinese media
firm said on Thursday.
A PMI reading below 50 indicates contraction in
the manufacturing economy, while a
higher number denotes expansion.
The Caixin PMI figure stood in contrast with
China’s official manufacturing PMI for May
which fell deeper into contraction
mode at 48.8, marking a five-month low.
The Caixin PMI surveys small and medium-sized
enterprises (SMEs) and export-oriented
enterprises located in eastern coastal regions
while the official PMI is tilted toward larger
state-owned enterprises.
Production expanded at the quickest rate in
nearly a year, supported by a fresh rise in
overall new business amid reports of firmer
client demand, Caixin said in a statement.
The rate of output growth picked up from
April’s three-month low and was the best seen
since June 2022.
“The subindex for total new orders recorded its
second-highest reading since May 2021 as
surveyed businesses reported more clients and
demand, even though demand remained a bit
weaker than supply,” said Wang Zhe, a senior
economist at Caixin Insight Group.
External demand remained stable, with the gauge
for new export orders rising marginally within
expansionary territory, Wang said.
Overseas shipments of intermediate goods
significantly outperformed shipments of
consumer and investment products, according to
Wang.
Average delivery times for inputs at Chinese
factories shortened again in May due to
increased capacity at suppliers and improved
material availability.
However, business confidence around the
12-month outlook for output slipped to a
seven-month low in May amid concerns over
lingering global economic uncertainty, Caixin
said.
Manufacturing employment continued to
deteriorate in May, Wang noted.
“In a stark contrast to the improvements in
supply and demand, the job market contracted at
a faster pace in May, with the employment
subindex plumbing the lowest level since
February 2020,” Wang said.
“Manufacturers remained optimistic, but the
reading for expectations for future output
worsened in May from the previous six months,
though it stayed above 50. In fact, the reading
was 2.6 points below the long-term average, as
manufacturers showed concern about economic
uncertainty,” Wang added.
Focus article by Nurluqman
Suratman
01-Jun-2023
HOUSTON (ICIS)–LyondellBasell plans to delay
the exit from its Houston-based refining
business to no later than the end of Q1 2025,
the international petrochemicals major said in
an update on Wednesday.
The company originally planned to
end operations at the 268,000 bbl/day Houston
refinery by end 2023.
“Favourable inspections and consistent
performance” have given the company the
confidence to continue safe and reliable
operations at the Houston site, it said.
A moderate maintenance spend would support the
extension in 2023 and 2024, it added.
The extension will minimise any impact on the
workforce as LyondellBasell continues to
develop future options for the site. It will
also enable a smoother transition between the
shutdown and the implementation of the
retrofitting and circular projects, it said.
Meanwhile, the company is evaluating multiple options for
the Houston site, including recycled and
renewable-based feedstocks and green and blue
hydrogen.
These growth projects will connect to existing
assets in the Houston area and use existing
infrastructure on the refining site, including
hydrotreaters, pipelines, tanks, utilities,
buildings and laboratories, LyondellBasell
noted.
“In the future, LyondellBasell expects the
700-acre refining site will be part of a
Houston regional hub for its Circular and Low
Carbon Solutions business and support the
growth of the LyondellBasell Circulen
product portfolio,” it said.
Additional reporting by Al Greenwood
Thumbnail shows a pump that dispenses
gasoline, one of the products made at a
refinery. Image by Shutterstock.
31-May-2023
SINGAPORE (ICIS)–On Wednesday, Thailand’s
central bank raised its key interest rates by
25 basis points (bps) to 2.0% to tame
inflation, while the economy is projected to
post a 3.6% growth this year on the back of
recovery in tourism and consumption.
This is the sixth consecutive rate hike issued
by the Bank of Thailand (BoT) since August
2022, bringing the cumulative increase to
150bps.
It may be the last in the current monetary
tightening cycle as inflation pressures appear
to be easing.
“Inflation should continue to decline at a
gradual pace,” Piti Disyatat, secretary of the
BoT monetary policy committee, said in a
statement.
Headline inflation is projected to be 2.5% in
2023 and 2.4% in 2024 due to easing electricity
and oil prices, Disyatat said.
“Following another 25bps rate hike today, we
think the Bank of Thailand (BoT) has reached
the peak of the current rate hiking cycle,”
said Sung Eun Jung, lead economist at research
firm Oxford Economics in a note on Wednesday.
“With the policy rate now above where it was
before the pandemic, we think an extended pause
is most likely,” Sung said.
Thailand’s core inflation, which excludes food
and energy, however, will likely remain
elevated and is projected to stabilise at 2.0%
in 2023 to 2024, the BoT said.
GDP growth is projected to accelerate to 3.6%
in 2023 and further to 3.8% in 2024, from the
2.6% pace set last year, according to BoT.
“A key impetus is the broad-based recovery in
tourism, which should promote employment and
labour income, in turn sustaining private
consumption,” BoT’s Disyatat said.
In the first quarter of 2023, the Thai economy
expanded at an annualised rate of 2.7%, with
the average inflation rate at 3.9%, according
to data from the Thai Office of the National
Economic and Social Development Council
(NESDC).
On a seasonally adjusted quarter-on-quarter
basis, the economy posted a 1.9% growth.
On a year-on-year basis, Q1 manufacturing
continued to contract but logged a narrower
decline of 3.1% from 5.0% in the previous
quarter.
Thailand’s January-March 2023 exports, however,
fell by 4.6% year on year to $69.8bn, with
export volume down 6.4% “in line with the
economic slowdown of key trading partners.”
“There’s still economic slack and the services
sector has room to recover from its pandemic
lows,” Sung of Oxford Economics said.
“The [Monetary] committee recognises upside
risks to domestic growth, in part owing to
forthcoming government economic policies. At
the same time, there is a need to monitor the
uncertain economic and monetary policy outlook
of major economies,” BoT’s Disyatat said.
Focus article by Pearl
Bantillo
31-May-2023
SINGAPORE (ICIS)–China’s manufacturing sector
lost further momentum in May, heightening
concerns that oil consumption in the world’s
second-biggest economy could weaken further.
Oil prices were trading lower on Wednesday,
weighed down by the downbeat data from China
and lingering uncertainties over the US debt
ceiling pact.
Prices at 03:50 GMT ($/bbl)
Latest
Previous
Change
Brent July
73.35
73.54
-0.19
WTI July
69.26
69.46
-0.20
China’s official manufacturing purchasing
managers’ index (PMI) for May fell deeper into contraction
mode at 48.8, which is a five-month low.
A PMI reading below 50 indicates contraction,
while a higher number denotes expansion.
The new orders subindex fell to 48.3 in May,
while the new export orders subindex fell to
47.2.
China’s official non-manufacturing PMI, which
measures business sentiment in the services and
construction sectors, fell to 54.5 in May from
56.4 in April, marking the slowest pace in four
months.
In-person services sector staged a strong
rebound during the first post-COVID holiday in
early May (Labour Day), with domestic tourism
trips and revenues both exceeding their 2019
pre-pandemic levels, Japan’s Nomura Global
Markets Research said in a note.
“We expect [China’s economic] growth momentum
to weaken further in May, as property distress
worsens, the export slowdown deepens, and
because Beijing has still not taken meaningful
action,” it said.
“Beijing might be more cautious this time
around as policymakers are faced with a smaller
policy toolkit, a structural collapse in the
property sector, and a much more complicated
geopolitical situation,” Nomura said.
OIL EXTENDS LOSSES
Brent crude continued to trade sideways this
week as the market awaits a decision from oil
cartel OPEC and its allies (OPEC+) on 4 June
regarding production.
“The warning from the Saudi energy minister
over short-selling in oil supported prices last
week, however, broader macro-economic concerns,
uncertainty around the US debt ceiling
agreement and the possibility of a continued
rate hike in the US weighed on the sentiment,”
Dutch banking and financial services firm ING
said in a note.
Other demand concerns remain linked to China’s
oil consumption growth this year as it is
expected to play a major role in driving global
oil demand growth this year, Vivek Dhar,
director of commodities research at
Commonwealth Bank of Australia, said in a note
on Wednesday.
China is projected to account
for nearly 60% of global oil
demand growth in 2023, according to the
International Energy Agency’s (IEA) latest
latest Oil Market Report.
“With China’s industrial output and fixed asset
investment growing more slowly than expected
last month, markets are worried that China’s
commodity demand is weakening more quickly than
anticipated,” Dhar of the Commonwealth Bank of
Australia said.
“The current pessimism surrounding China’s
commodity demand stands in contrast to the
optimism at the beginning of this year. Markets
were hopeful earlier this year that China’s
pent- up demand would hold up strongly
following the reopening of China’s economy,”
Dhar said.
Focus article by Nurluqman Suratman
Thumbnail image: At Qinzhou port in south
China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on 11
May 2023. (Source: Xinhua/Shutterstock)
31-May-2023
SINGAPORE (ICIS)–Click here to see the
latest blog post on Asian Chemical Connections
by John Richardson. The short-term tactics of
China’s polypropylene (PP) producers are clear
from the latest export data combined with the
ICIS Pricing numbers.
China’s total PP exports in January-April 2023
fell to 436,195 tonnes compared with 486,727
tonnes during the same months last year.
But the overall decline masked growing pressure
from competitively priced Chinese products in
the southeast Asian market, particularly in
Indonesia, mainly in raffia grade.
China’s exports to southeast Asia increased to
163,101 tonnes in January-April this year from
127,042 tonnes in January-April 2022. The main
reason was a sharp rise in shipments to
Indonesia and the Philippines.
Indonesia’s PP raffia grade price premiums over
China increased from $59/tonne in December 2022
to a peak so far this year of $151/tonne in
February, before declining to $106/tonne in
May. The rise in price premiums attracted more
shipments from China, probably resulting in the
dip in premiums from March until May.
We will see this pattern across a wide range of
China’s export destinations in south Asia,
Turkey, Latin America, etc. We believe that the
increased pressure from Chinese exports will
result in greater volatility in pricing
differentials between regions and countries.
The pressure exerted by Chinese PP exports has
increased because China’s PP demand could fall
by 1% in 2023, as it plans to add 4.6m
tonnes/year more capacity. China’s capacity as
a percentage of demand could reach 124% this
year, having first surpassed 100% in 2021.
China’s long-term exports of PP may also
include higher value as well as commodity
grades of PP. Do not assume that China won’t be
able to access or develop the catalysts and
technologies to achieve this.
Editor’s note: This blog post is an opinion
piece. The views expressed are those of the
author, and do not necessarily represent those
of ICIS.
31-May-2023
HOUSTON (ICIS)–Australian Trigg Minerals
Limited said it has achieved encouraging
progress into an alternative processing method
for producing potassium-rich feed salts from
the Lake Throssell sulphate of potash (SOP)
project in Western Australia.
Trigg said the ongoing testing has the
potential to deliver a simpler and more
commercially robust method for processing feed
salts which could significantly derisk Lake
Throssell.
In addition the company said if commercially
proven, the technology also has significant
positive implications for the broader SOP
industry in Western Australia.
The testing has also been designed to provide
an alternative to the secondary evaporation
ponds where the concentrated brine needs to be
maintained in an equilibrium to precipitate the
complex potassium rich salts.
Trigg said maintaining this part of the process
in a steady state when open to the atmosphere,
with all of the consequent changes in
temperature, pressure and humidity, has proven
to be problematic for the SOP industry.
“This is a pivotal moment in the development of
this new technology, which has the potential to
improve the processing reliability of the much
needed and essential mineral fertilizer
required for sustainable food production,” said
Keren Paterson, Trigg Minerals managing
director.
“In addition to its broader industry
implications within the SOP sector, it may also
have implications for the extraction of other
minerals in brine. “We look forward to keeping
shareholders updated on our progress as we
continue to generate further information and
move towards the pivotal pilot scale test work
program.”
In a market update the company noted global
potash markets have continued to ease on weak
demand and reduced sentiment.
Trigg said the benchmark price is down
approximately 40% year on year since sanctions
and other trade restrictions pushed potash
prices to record highs.
It added that values remain above the long-term
price assumption used in the Lake Throssell
scoping study but the situation highlights the
imperative for Trigg to continue to learn from
the industry first movers and seek alternative
methodologies to mitigate technical and
commissioning risks.
The project’s scoping study previously
indicated the potential for the project to be a
top 10 global producer with an initial 21-year
mine life with an output estimated at 245,000
tonnes/year of SOP. It also said its possible
to expand the project and extend mine life with
further exploration.
30-May-2023
SAO PAULO (ICIS)–A fall of nearly 6.5% in
Brazil’s fertilizers producer prices in April,
month on month, dragged down overall chemicals
prices, the country’s statistics body IBGE said
on Tuesday.
Overall chemicals prices fell 2.61% in April,
compared with March, as all subcategories
posted falls.
It is the 10th consecutive monthly fall in
chemicals producer prices, said IBGE.
Moreover, chemicals was the largest contributor
to the overall fall in industrial producer
prices, down 0.35% month on month.
“The three groups [for which prices are]
released – manufacture of inorganic chemicals,
manufacture of resins and elastomers, and
manufacture of pesticides – dropped,” said
Murilo Lemos, analyst at IBGE.
“However, manufacture of inorganic chemicals,
which includes fertilizers, stood out. That
group registered a drop of 6.39% in the
comparison between April and March.”
According to IBGE, the cumulative rate in
overall industrial producer prices for the past
12 months fell 4.63%, the biggest drop in the
time series for this indicator, started in
2014.
Producer prices fell in 12 out of 24 industrial
activities surveyed in April.
The falls in producer prices go in tandem with
Brazil’s slowing rate of inflation, which in
April
stood at 4.18%, down from 4.65%
in March.
BELEAGUERED
FERTILIZERSBrazil’s key
agricultural sector is a large global consumer
of fertilizers; the industry has been in the
doldrums for months, in Brazil and practically
everywhere else as high stocks and poor demand
has caused sharp price falls.
“The supply of fertilizers in the world market
had been impacted by the restrictions of the
pandemic and became even more scarce with the
war in Ukraine. Brazilian producers managed to
reinforce the stocks to avoid a shortage at
harvesting time,” said IBGE’s Lemos.
“Prices rose in that period, though fewer
pandemic-related restrictions and the return of
exports from European countries increased the
supply in the second semester last year, though
not followed by the demand. This impacted the
chemical sector as a whole.”
The outlook for the fertilizers sector remains
woeful; in
this podcast, the ICIS fertilizers team
analyses the outlook for the sector for the
remaining of 2023.
DIESEL, JET PRICES
FALLProducer prices for
petroleum refining also fell notably, and the
sector was the second largest contributor to
the monthly fall after chemicals.
According to Lemos, some derivatives, such as
diesel fuel and jet kerosene, posted sharp
falls.
“Usually not a highlight, biodiesel stood out
this month with a reduction due to the drop in
the prices of soybean oil, its major raw
material,” said Lemos.
“On the other hand, ethyl alcohol rose due to
the increase in the prices of sugarcane, whose
supply reduced due to weather issues.”
AUTO: HEADING TO THREE YEARS OF
RISESOne of the sectors to post
higher producer prices in April was the
petrochemicals-intensive automotive, up 0.16%
compared with March.
The sector’s producer prices have posted 34
consecutive months of increases, said IGBE.
The cumulative rate for the past 12 months in
automotive producer prices rose 6.08%.
“It rose for nearly three years in a row, which
can be justified by an increase of costs. They
have been facing a crisis in the semiconductors
since the beginning of the pandemic, which
impacts on the acquisition of inputs for cars,”
said Lemos.
“Yet, the change is not so high in absolute
terms and compared with other activities
surveyed.”
To compile the IPP index, IGBE surveys around
2,100 enterprises about the prices received by
producers, free from tax, tariffs and freight;
it collects nearly 6,000 prices.
30-May-2023
HOUSTON (ICIS)–A US bill that would raise the
nation’s debt ceiling includes provisions that
would reform the nation’s permitting regime,
which should make it easier to develop
infrastructure that would provide the chemical
industry with feedstock as well as speed up
renewable energy projects.
The Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, known as
HR 3746, still needs to pass the House Rules
Committee before the full chamber of the House
of Representatives can vote on it.
Some of the permit-reform proposals were
included
in earlier bills.
One of those will establish a single lead
agency for individual projects that require
reviews under the National Environmental Policy
Act (NEPA).
The lead agency has a two-year deadline to
study and develop an environmental impact
statement for projects deemed environmentally
complex.
For projects that are not deemed
environmentally complex, the lead agency will
have a one-year deadline to study and develop
environmental assessments.
Companies applying for the permits can sue the
government if it misses the deadline.
The debt-ceiling bill calls for the government
to spend a year studying the creation of an
online permitting portal for permits that
require NEPA review.
The bill will speed up the development of the
Mountain Valley Pipeline, which will ship
natural gas from the Marcellus shale in the
Appalachian region to the southern part of the
state of Virginia.
CHEMS HAVE LONG CALLED FOR PERMIT
REFORMThe chemical industry
has long called for the US to make it
easier to build pipelines and other energy
infrastructure.
Chemical plants in the US rely on natural gas
as a feedstock and fuel. In addition, they
overwhelmingly rely on gas-based feedstock such
as ethane and propane.
Permit reform would make it easier to build the
infrastructure needed to deliver fuel and
feedstock to chemical plants.
Increasingly, chemical companies are relying on
renewable power to lower their carbon
emissions.
Permit reform will make it easier to build the
transmission lines that will give chemical
plants access to renewable power produced by
solar panels, wind turbines and other
zero-carbon sources of electricity.
During a briefing held on 28 May, White
House officials acknowledged that the proposed
permit reforms should make it easier to build
more solar and wind projects as well as
transmission lines and electric-vehicle (EV)
chargers.
EVs and renewable power projects consume
various plastics and chemicals. Permit reform
could stimulate chemical demand for these end
markets.
In a statement, the American Chemistry Council
(ACC) said, “We applaud Congress and the Biden
administration for reaching a bipartisan
agreement that achieves progress on permitting
reform.”
The ACC encouraged Congress and the
administration to continue working on ways to
improve the nation’s permitting process.
Thumbnail shows a pipeline. Image by Global
Warming Images/REX Shutterstock
30-May-2023
Contact ICIS
If you want to find out how our decision-making tools can help you navigate market shifts, contact us today. Simply fill in your details, submit the form and a member of our team will get in touch with you.

Need Help?