Asia ethylene margins fall on increased feedstock costs

HOUSTON (ICIS)–Asian ethylene margins fell during the week ended 21 July as feedstock cost increases outweighed higher spot ethylene values, the ICIS margin report showed on Monday.

Naphtha-based ethylene margins in Southeast Asia fell by 12% during the week, while LPG-based ethylene margins fell by 11%.

In Northeast Asia, naphtha-based ethylene margins fell by 9.7% and LPG-based ethylene margins fell by 7.5%.

On an ethylene production basis, naphtha costs rose slightly by more than $91-92/tonne during the week, while LPG costs rose by $66-67/tonne.

This outweighed an increase of $22/tonne in spot ethylene values in both NE Asia and SE Asia.

Cracker co-product credit values also rose, but increases were small relative to feedstock cost increases.