Americas top stories: weekly summary
ICIS Editorial
11-Jun-2018
HOUSTON (ICIS)–Here are the top stories from ICIS News from the week ended 8 June
Initial US April,
May ethylene contracts settling
lower
Initial settlements for US April and
May ethylene are at a decrease of 1.5
cents/lb and 0.75 cent/lb, respectively,
tracking lower spot prices, market sources said
on Monday.
Total, Borealis,
NOVA joint project breaks ground on US Gulf
cracker
Total, Borealis and NOVA Chemicals held a
ground-breaking ceremony on Monday for the
construction of a new ethane cracker
in Port Arthur, Texas.
US April, May
ethylene contracts settle at two-year lows amid
long supply
US April and May ethylene contracts
settled on Monday for a majority of
participants at a decrease of 1.5 cents/lb and
0.75 cent/lb, respectively, amid long supply
and historically low spot prices, sinking to
their lowest levels in over two years.
Total declares
force majeure on PP copolymer from US Texas
plant
Total Petrochemicals and Refining USA declared
a force majeure on all of its impact
copolymer polypropylene (PP) products
from its plant in La Porte, Texas, according to
a customer letter obtained on Tuesday.
US trade wars
would be a big blow to chemical investment –
CEOs
Escalating trade tensions between the US and
its main trading partners are causing concern
and ratcheting up risk. If actual trade wars
break out, investment in the US chemical
industry would take a big hit, company CEOs
said on Tuesday.
Many factors
discourage new styrene plants in US,
EU
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (ICIS)–Several
factors are discouraging companies from adding
new styrene capacity in the US or in
Europe, the CEO of Trinseo said.
US ethane surges
to four-year high on demand, pipeline
outage
US ethane spot prices are trading at four-year
highs, facing strong upward price pressure from
the outage of the Mariner East pipeline, higher
cracker demand and rising ethane exports.
US May LLDPE,
HDPE contracts fall, LDPE steady on shorter
supply
May contracts for linear low density
polyethylene (LLDPE) were assessed at a
decrease of 3 cents/lb ($66/tonne) from April
while contract prices for high density
polyethylene (HDPE) were assessed 2 cents/lb
lower. Low density polyethylene (LDPE)
contracts were assessed at a rollover.
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