NWE olefin contracts for January 2016 fall in line with upstream naphtha

28-Dec-15

January contracts for Northwest European olefins, ethylene, propylene and butadiene have all fallen following declines upstream, as per Platts. European ethylene and propylene contracts had fully settled Wednesday at Eur900/mt (US$984/mt) and Eur620/mt FD NWE, respectively, down Eur27.5/mt and Eur50/mt month on month. Butadiene settled a day earlier at Eur555/mt FD NWE, down Eur35/mt on the month. January's contract price means both propylene and butadiene are at lows not seen since mid-2009. Ethylene, faring better over the year on healthy exports to Asia and strong derivative demand, is at a low not seen since February. The lows were reached on weakening upstream naphtha, the primary feedstock for olefin production in Europe. Naphtha was assessed at US$373/mt CIF NWE Tuesday, down US$60.75/mt since November 30, when ethylene and propylene last settled for December. Lower naphtha prices have helped European cracker margins grow 28% in December to Eur549.28/mt Tuesday, which encourages higher production that may be the cause of greater European olefin availability. An extension of length in olefins had also been seen following the December 4 restart of Shell's Moerdijk steam cracker in the Netherlands. The cracker, which had an unplanned outage November 11, can produce 900,000 tpa of ethylene, or 4% of Western European capacity. Spot prices for ethylene, propylene and butadiene fell Eur98/mt, Eur44/mt and Eur65/mt, respectively, from December 1 to Eur830/mt, Eur586/mt and Eur485/mt FD NWE Tuesday.