The spread between ethylene and naphtha prices in Asia reached their highest levels reported since 2008, according to ChemOrbis Price Wizard. Current naphtha prices in Asia are almost US$400/ton below levels reported a year ago. This downtrend on naphtha costs is in line with the trend observed in crude oil prices on NYMEX. The OPEC meeting that was held on June 5 in Vienna, Austria resulted in a decision to continue with steady crude oil production, targeting 30 mln bpd as a ceiling, for another six months.
Likewise, spot ethylene prices in Asia have been mainly below last year’s level during 2015, but since February, they have experienced a sharp and prolonged upward trend. After hitting a low for the year in February, spot ethylene prices now stand around US$540/ton above levels reported in February. The heavy maintenance season in Asia that started around April and is expected to last until the June-July period was behind the increases on ethylene prices. Due to the sharper hike in ethylene prices, the spread between Asian ethylene and naphtha prices reached over US$800/ton, according to ChemOrbis.
However, recently, Asia has started to see some plant restarts in the ethylene market. Samsung Total and BASF-YPC have restarted their crackers by H2-May while Idemitsu Kosan also restarted its 374,000 tpa ethylene cracker on June 5. Dushanzi Petrochemical is to restart its 1.2 mln tpa cracker in China by mid-June. Although there are still some plants off line in the region, they are expected to resume operations soon. Mitsubishi Chemical’s cracker with 495,000 tpa ethylene capacity, shut H2-May, is slated to restart by the end of June. YNCC’s No 1 cracker is to resume operations by mid-June. The cracker was shut for maintenance by mid-May. Formosa Petrochemical shut its No.1 cracker with 700,000 tpa ethylene capacity on June 9 for 40 days maintenance, while Mitsui Chemical’s 600,000 tpa Chiba cracker is to be shut between June 20 and July 19 for 39 days.
15-Jun-15 
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