European PE, PP buyers paying more in January 2014 on ethylene, propylene prices, respectively, up €15/tonne and €20/tonne; buyers remain calm, have accepted producers' recommended €50/tonne price increase
Allison Oesterle
February 3, 2014 (ICIS Chemical Business (CBNB Abstracts)) – Buyers of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) are paying more in Jan 2014 as prices of ethylene and propylene increased by EUR 15/tonne and EUR 20/tonne, respectively. However, buyers remain calm even with a force majeure at the Gonfreville plant of Total in France and tight supply. There is a tight supply of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and some C4 (butene based) linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) grades. Producers are recommending a EUR 50/tonne increase and buyers have accepted this increase in order to have their supply. Spot prices of LDPE have increased from EUR 1300/tonne free delivered (FD) northwest Europe (NWE) in Dec 2013 to EUR 1350-1370/tonne FD NWE. Spot prices of C4 LLDPE have also increased from EUR 1260/tonne FD NWE to EUR 1300-1310/tonne FD NWE. Some buyers expected an increase in HDPE prices from the Middle East in Jan 2014 due to the 3.5 percentage point import duty increase. Spot prices of PP increased from EUR 1210-1220/tonne FD NWE to EUR 1300/tonne, particularly for homopolymer injection. A graph presents the spot FD NWE prices of PP and PE in Europe in EUR/tonne from Jan 2013 to Jan 2014. Original Source: ICIS Chemical Business, http://www.icis.com/, Copyright Reed Business Information Limited 2014.
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