US June PP contracts roll over on propylene

HOUSTON (ICIS)–US June polypropylene (PP) contracts rolled over from May on Friday, the first no-change in the monthly figure since February 2016.

The rollover also marked the 11th straight month that PP has followed feedstock propylene on monthly contracts.

Buyers and sellers confirmed the June settlement., which leaves PP block co-polymer at 57.5-61.50 cents/lb ($1,268-1,356/tonne).

A PP producer who confirmed the rollover predicted that the direction of polymer prices for the rest of the year should be down, considering that Enterprise’s new propane dehydrogenation (PDH) unit is supposed to start up in the third quarter.

However, the PP producer said that PDH project has missed other startup deadlines in the past year.

“The big question of course is when does Enterprise come up? If they do come up, that should put some downward pressure on prices for sure,” he said.

Earlier this week propylene contract prices for June settled at a rollover, keeping values at 38.5 cents/lb for polymer-grade propylene (PGP) and at 37.0 cents/lb for chemical-grade propylene, flat from May levels. T

For almost a year PP has followed the feedstock, with prices rising in five months and dropping during the same number, plus the rollover in June.

Major PP producers in the North America include Braskem, ExxonMobil, Flint Hills Resources, Formosa Plastics, Indelpro, INEOS, LyondellBasell, Phillips 66, Pinnacle Polymers and Total Petrochemicals.

Image above: This chair is made of PP. Source: Nils Jorgensen/REX/Shutterstock