US November propylene contracts begin settling up 1 cent/lb

HOUSTON (ICIS)–US November propylene contracts began settling on Wednesday at an increase of 1 cent/lb from the previous month, although the settlement is not yet marketwide.

If fully accepted, the settlement would put November contract prices for polymer-grade propylene (PGP) at 49.0 cents/lb ($1,080/tonne), up from 48.0 cents/lb in October, and for chemical-grade propylene (CGP) at 47.5 cents/lb, up from 46.5 cents/lb in October.

The increase follows disruptions from Hurricane Harvey, which caused outages for several steam crackers and refineries in the US Gulf. Most outages were resolved in the weeks following the late-August hurricane, but some outages continued into November.

Effects from the hurricane also caused a delay in the start-up of a new propane dehydrogenation (PDH) unit, which had been expected to begin production in September. The unit is now expected to start up in November.

US propylene contracts are typically settled in the middle of the month for the current month.

Major US propylene producers include Chevron Phillips Chemical, Enterprise Products, ExxonMobil, Flint Hills Resources and Shell Chemical.

Major buyers include Arkema, Ascend Performance Materials, Braskem, Dow Chemical, INEOS, Oxea and Total.

(updates throughout)