PET market in Europe 'currently balanced to tight' due to controlled imports, recent and upcoming plant shutdowns, careful inventory management, says ICIS; PET prices declined from March to April and imports are weakening
Elyse Blye
LONDON , May 22, 2014 (ICIS Chemical Business (CBNB Abstracts) ) – The European polyethylene terephthalate (PET) market is currently balanced to tight due to controlled imports, recent and upcoming plant shutdowns and careful inventory management. PET markets in certain regions will be affected by the shutdown of Indorama in Poland in May 2014 and are expected to be tight. Meanwhile, prices of PET are declining from Mar to Apr 2014. Imports of the commodity are weakening. PET sellers were encouraged to aim for higher prices due to increased initial upstream paraxylene (PX) settlement in Apr 2014. However, prices of PX and monoethylene glycol (MEG), a secondary feedstock of PET, were confirmed to have rolled over from Mar to Apr 2014. Freely negotiated prices of the material dropped and settled at EUR 1030-1090/tonne free delivered (FD) in Europe. There would be an oversupply of PET in Europe due to new capacities of selected PET sellers, including Lotte Chemical UK, JBF in Belgium and EIPET's second line in Egypt. A line graph shows domestic FD prices (EUR/tonne) of bottle-grade PET in Europe from May 2013 until May 2014.
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