Price trend of oil, feedstocks and commodity polymers for the week of 6 November, 2006

SUMMARY Oil continued to remain between US$56-61/barel in the week of 30th October 2006. The price was US$59/barrel in the week of 6th November 2006. Warmer weather in USA with no cut in production from OPEC countries will keep the price of oil weaker in November 2006. Naphtha, as well all other feedstocks remained dull and lost this week. November 2006 will see further fall in the prices of feedstocks. All commodity polymers with the exception of GPPS and ABS lost in the week of November 6, 2006. Prices are expected to remain soft during November 2006 with the exception of ABS and possibly GPPS. OIL Oil remained range bound between US$56-US$61/barrel in this week. This represents a marginal rise from the level of US$59/barel in the week of 6th November 2006. Warmer weather in USA has not exerted any demand for additional oil for heating and OPEC countries have also not yet cut production. These are the two prime reasons that keep oil at this price range. It will continue to be in the range of US$55-60/barrel in November 2006. NAPHTHA Naphtha slipped to US$520/MT in the week of 6th November 2006 due to softening of oil price. It will remain at this price until end of December 2006. POLYMER FEEDSTOCKS ETHYLENE Ethylene price weakened slightly to US$1070/MT due to bearish demand. Weaker oil price also contributed to a marginal drop in the week of November 06, 2006. November 2006 is not expected to show any increase in the price of ethylene because of weaker demand and softer oil price. PROPYLENE Propylene price remained range bound between US$1115-1125/MT in the week of November 06, 2006 mainly due to weaker sentiments in the market place and softer oil price. It will continue to remain flat in November 2006. EDC EDC remained stagnant at US$410/MT due to tighter supply in Asia. The less demand of EDC from market also did not allow prices to rise. November 2006 is expected to remain quiet on account of lower oil and ethylene price coupled with weaker sentiment in the demand scenario. VCM The weaker demand of PVC and lowering of PVC prices across the Asian region coupled with softer oil price as well as ethylene price allowed the price of VCM to fall by US$10/MT to US$640/MT. It is not likely to flare up significantly in November 2006 due to weaker sentiments in the markets for PVC demand. STYRENE Further drop in price of benzene reduced the price of styrene to US$1230/MT in the week of November 6,2006. It will continue to get weaker in November 2006. December 2006 may witness the price of styrene at US$1220/MT. POLYMERS LDPE The supplies of cheaper cargoes from USA made LDPE slip to US$1260/MT. The weaker demand scenario in Asia did not augur well for LDPE. The processors were not willing to purchase at a higher price and decided to wait longer for price to fall further down. November 2006 may not see any upward trend due to continued bearish demand in Asia. LLDPE The weaker demand along with cheaper cargoes from deep sea reduced the price of LLDPE to US$1250/MT in the week of November 2006. It is not expected to revise upwards in November 2006. In fact the price could tumble further to US$1220/MT in November 2006. HDPE HDPE price softened to US$1260/MT due to weaker demand in Asia. It is likely to drop further to US$120-1230/MT in November 2006. PP The price of PP remained almost static or at the most reduced by US$10/MT and reached US$1240/MT. Chinese processors expect price of deep cargoes to reach as low as US$1150/MT by end of November 2006. Anyway the price of PP will remain soft in November 2006. PVC PVC continued to fall further and reached a level of US$800/MT. Asian processors particularly from China expect the price to reach around US$750/MT towards the end of November 2006. PS GPPS remained quiet and maintained the price of US$1300/MT in the week of November 6, 2006. It is likely to be available at about US$1270/MT by end of November 2006. The decline in price of benzene will help to reduce the price of GPPS ABS ABS like GPPS remained static at US$1600/MT No upward or downward movement is seen in November 2006.