Ethylene spot prices in Europea jump after fire at Shell’s plant in Moerdijk

09-Jun-14

Last week, European ethylene spot prices spiked mid week following a fire earlier in the week at Shell's Moerdijk site in the Netherlands. The styrene monomer/propylene oxide facility at Moerdijk was hit by a fire late Tuesday. The plant is a 50:50 joint venture between Shell and BASF. Shell also operates a 900,000 tpa steam cracker at the site. Sources expect olefin supply from the steam cracker at the site to be affected, as per Platts. A spot trade was heard on the Aethylen-Rohrleitungs-Gesellschaft (ARG) ethylene pipeline in Northwest Europe at Eur 1065/mt FCA late Thursday, compared with the last trade on the line heard at Eur 950/mt Wednesday.