INTERACTIVE: Global IPEX higher as Asia prices rise, led by ethylene spike
Nigel Davis
06-Mar-2019
LONDON (ICIS)–Rising prices in Northeast Asia, led by a spike in ethylene, helped push the global IPEX higher in February.
The steep increase in ethylene prices in northeast Asia in February was driven by lower export availability out of Europe, in turn due to a cracker outage in Italy. Supply from Europe has proved to be ample, however, and spot ethylene prices in northeast Asia have begun to weaken.
Prices for some of the major polymers in the two other major petrochemical and polymer producing and consuming regions were close to or at rollover in the month. The February ethylene contract price in northwest Europe was also static month to month. Aromatics prices were higher in all regions.
Propylene and polypropylene (PP) inventories in the US are at multi-year highs keeping supply plentiful and maintaining downward pressure on prices.
– Asia prices higher in February
– Spike in ethylene Asia on concerns about
Europe export availability
– C3 and polymer prices lower in US
IPEX | IPEX Value | January 2019 to February 2019 change (%) |
Global | 234.01 | 1.50 |
US | 229.14 | 0.37 |
Northwest Europe | 267.78 | 0.10 |
Northeast Asia | 223.01 | 2.81 |
Major price rises in February | ||
Commodity | Region | Month on month rise (%) |
Ethylene | Northeast Asia | 23.38 |
Toluene | Northwest Europe | 11.48 |
Paraxylene | US Gulf Coast | 7.00 |
Major price falls in October | ||
Commodity | Region | Month on month fall (%) |
Butadiene | Northeast Asia | -5.42 |
Propylene | US Gulf Coast | -3.75 |
Polypropylene | US Gulf Coast | -3.28 |
Monthly IPEX values are subject to change as contract prices settle. The February styrene contract price in the US has yet to be agreed.
Global and regional IPEX data are available
here
The
ICIS Petrochemical Index methodology is
available here
The ICIS petrochemical index tracks the movement of 12 major petrochemicals and polymers: ethylene, propylene, butadiene, benzene, toluene, paraxylene (PX), polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), styrene, polystyrene (PS), methanol and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) with the regional indexes weighted by capacity.
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