US VAM free on board export prices on March 31 and previous week up by $100/tonne at range of US$1,600-US$1,800/tonne from $1,500-US$1,700/tonne

Elyse Blye

LONDON , April 25, 2014 (ICIS Chemical Business (CBNB Abstracts)) – Because of plant turnarounds and supply issues, US vinyl acetate monomer (VAM) FOB (free on board) export prices increased by $100/tonne and is now at the range of $1600-1800/tonne from $1500-1700/tonne during the past week to 31 Mar 2014 based on ICIS assessment. Starting early Jan, export prices have increased by 63% with most of the rise in Mar. The recent increase of $100/tonne or more is the fourth increase in the past month. Starting late Feb, two American producers including LyondellBasell have declared force majeure. The 365,000 tonne/year VAM plant of Dow Chemicals in Texas City, TX, will be shut in Apr for planned maintenance. VAM prices are just above $1000/tonne at the start of the year. Price hikes are due partly to plant outages in Europe late-2013 and temporary outages in the US in 2014, from turnarounds and force majeures. DuPont and LyondellBasell plants will be shut down in Apr for planned maintenance. A graph entitled US VAM Prices shows the spot price (in $/tonne) of VAM on a FOB export basis from Apr 2012 to Apr 2014.

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