Propylene prices in Northeast Asia slid by US$30/mt accumulatively last week as the gap between buying and selling ideas widened. The propylene market of Asia kept bearish last week, on expectations of enhanced spot propylene cargoes from S. Korea and Taiwan for July delivery. Several plants are scheduled to go onstream this month, reducing pressures to stockpile propylene, in anticipation of steady supply.
S. Korea's Samsung Total Petrochemicals Company Ltd. has enhanced production to full capacity at its 800,000 tpa naphtha cracker. S. Korea's Yeochon Naphtha Cracking Centre (YNCC) also plans a restart of its 520,000 tpa No.2 naphtha-cracking unit this week after a month long turnaround outage. Thai PTT Chemical plans to bring its 430,000 tpa naphtha cracker on stream by the end of the month, after a month long maintenance shutdown.
Asian ethylene prices continued to fall last week pressured by subdued demand from end-users. Suppliers lowered their offers for July shipment to US$1,060-1,070/mt CFR FE on restrained end-user demand. In SE Asian market, ethylene prices fell to US$1,100/mt CFR level. Asian ethylene prices continue to fall depicting a bearish market demand. The market anticipates a further drop of offer prices as supply increases from S.Korean producers Samsung Total and YNCC. Anticipation of further price fall is keeping most buyers away from purchase of fresh cargoes as bids from Taiwan and South Korea dip as low as US$1000/mt
19-Jun-07 
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