Steadily rising prices of ethylene between mid-April and mid-September caused many buyers to turn to alternative sources, but a recent pullback in the market has rekindled interest. Ethylene offtake this month is currently around 172,825 metric tons, and compares to
Most petrochemical crackers are running at relatively high operating rates amid the coronavirus pandemic, as demand for virus mitigation products requiring polyolefins remains high. In the UK, however, operations slowed recently at Navigator’s Teesside and Exxon’s Fife plants, as supplies
Naphtha’s price surge in May and June has made LPG more cost effective for petrochemical crackers that are able to switch feedstocks. LPG prices moved only slightly higher during the naphtha rally, and especially so in producing regions such as
Petrochemical cracker outages can impact olefin supply and feedstock demand in the ports where they reside, but mixed results from a few recent events may be more of an indication of things to come. Naphtha offtake in East Asia so
July finished with additional signs that the LPG markets are coming back into favor, with overall offtake increasing 14% from June. Higher discharges took place in parts of Asia, where Japanese and South Korean imports each grew 24%, to 324,000
Recent price gains in the ethylene and propylene markets have been matched by chemical makers’ official selling prices with several price increases announced in recent months. Signs of a demand recovery from the coronavirus-induced slump continue to emerge. Global ethylene
Tension between the United States and China has ratcheted up in recent weeks amid increasingly hostile rhetoric. The global spread of the coronavirus has further hurt relations between Beijing and Washington, stoking the possibility of a new trade war amid
Olefin and feedstock offtake plummeted in February in regions that are being impacted by the coronavirus, such as East Asia (See Vol. 1, Issue 1), but Latin America has nearly been completely spared. Discharges of propylene and naphtha in the
After selling all residual fuel oil stock in the beginning of February, China’s independent refinery (teapot) Hengrunde Petrochemical inGuangrao, Shandong paused residual fuel oil sales, waiting for the market to return to normal from the interruption of the coronavirus outbreak.
Chinese private-owned Ningbo Zhongjin Petrochemicals has imported straight run fuel oil(SRFO) mainly from spot market since last year. The company had imported about 3 million metric tons of SRFO on both a spot and term basis after its start-up in
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