ScrapMonster Contributor
SEATTLE (polymers.in): Oil futures fell on Wednesday after Libya said it expects to boost production over the next few months and a report showing a surprise build in U.S. crude inventories last week.
Oil prices rose in quiet trading on Thursday, supported by strong U.S. economic data, a pause in the U.S. dollar rally and optimism that crude producers would abide by an agreement to limit output.
Iraq said most international oil companies working in the country, along with the semi-autonomous Kurdish region, have agreed to cut crude output to fulfill an OPEC accord.
According to The Plastics Exchange, polyethylene and polypropylene commodity grades recorded the second week of gains as the market has begun to recover.
US imports of PET scrap totaled 100,127 metric tons through October, up 14,587 mt or 17% from Jan-Oct 2015, the latest USA Trade Online data show.
In China, the sentiment in the PP and PE markets has signaled a change of direction this week amidst the consecutive decreases in May PP and LLDPE futures on the Dalian Commodity Exchange which had been seen as the main driver of previous price increases rather than real demand.
Southeast Asian polyethylene (PE) import prices were stable-to-firm in the week as a few producers had announced firmer offers for January shipment cargoes towards the end of the week on the back of increasing feedstock costs and higher China prices.
PP prices decreased in Far East Asia, but firmed up in South East Asia. Reports of higher import offers from overseas suppliers, firm upstream naphtha and propylene rates and a lift in buying trends together supported the price rise across South Asia.
According to ChemOrbis Price Wizard, Turkey’s PP market has traded at par with or under China for the large part of the second half of 2016, which is marked as the longest imbalance between the two markets.
Spot naphtha prices have been steadily firming up in Asia and Europe for the past five weeks, mainly finding a boost from the upstream crude oil prices.
China MEG daily import offers plunged to around $840/tonne on Monday, tracking sharp losses in both the Chinese domestic spot and futures values, market sources said.
US ethylene spot margins on an ethane-production basis fell by 4.0% during the week ended 16 December, reaching their lowest since February, the ICIS margin report showed on Monday.
Months before Mossi & Ghisolfi's (M&G) planned start-up of its $1bn petrochemical plant in Corpus Christi, Texas, along the Gulf Coast, the company’s contractors and subcontractors are claiming non-payment of bills totaling tens of millions of dollars.
A Polymerupdate source in Thailand informed that the company has schedule to shut its cracker in the second half of February 2017.
Courtesy: www.polymers.io
