Price trends of oil, feedstocks & commodity polymers for 16th April 2007

SUMMARY Oil price increased marginally & reached US $ 63/barrel in the week of 16th April 2007. It is likely to remain around US $ 65/barrel in May 2007. Naphtha continued its march ahead in north direction. This has increased the price of benzene & other feedstocks like butadiene. Ethylene, propylene & styrene monomer became stronger & their prices went up. However, EDC & VCM remained quiet & stagnated. All commodity polymers with the exception of PVC remained stable or stagnant. PVC due to increased demand increased. May 2007 could see increase in feedstocks & all commodity polymers particularly that of PVC, GPPS & ABS. OIL Oil inched up marginally to US $ 63/barrel on Nymex & US $ 65-66/barrel on Brent. Oil appears to be trying to break the barrier & inch up further. It is quite likely that oil will continue to remain higher at the level of US $ 65/barrel in the coming few weeks. NAPHTHA Naphtha continues to march ahead with price increase every week. European price seems to be quite hard. This has led to higher price in Asia. For the week of 16th April 2007 the price was $ 690-692/MT. It is expected that naphtha will remain stronger in the coming few weeks. POLYMER FEEDSTOCKS ETHYLENE Ethylene derivatives market seems to be quiet yet ethylene price in Asia has increased to US $ 840/MT in the week of 16th April 2007. It seems that the price would keep on fluctuating between US $ 830-850/MT in the coming few weeks. PROPYLENE Propylene price increased to US $ 1100/MT in the week of 16th April 2007. It is expected that propylene could continue to remain harder in May 2007. However, the customers are resisting the higher price. It is therefore to be seen whether its price would remain stronger or stagnates at this level. Since the market seems to be quiet for PP until now but this weeks seems to build up the demand it is quite possible that propylene could go up Northwards in May 2007. However, the increase could be around US $ 10-20/MT. EDC The price of EDC arrested to fall further. However, it remained stable at US $ 400/MT in the week of 16th April 2007. Increasing activity & demand of PVC in Asia could lead to increase in the price of EDC. It is quite possible that EDC could go up to US $ 410-420/MT in May 2007. VCM VCM price remained stable at US$ 730-750/MT in the week of 16th April 2007. The tighter supply situation was one of the reasons. The revival of PVC business in Asia was the second & perhaps more important factor. It is expected that VCM will go up Northwards & reach US $ 770/MT in May 2007. STYRENE Styrene price steeply increased to US $ 1300-1310/MT in the week of 16th April 2007 due to a sharp increase in the price of its feedstock benzene. May 2007 could see another increase by US $ 20/MT. The price of styrene monomer could reach to US $ 1330/MT. POLYMERS LDPE LDPE remained stagnant at US $1350/MT in the week of 16th April 2007. The Asian markets do not seem to pick up & remain lackluster e. LDPE is likely to remain in a narrow range of US $ 1350-1360/MT in May 2007. LLDPE LLDPE after reaching US $ 1280/MT last week remained flat in the week of 16th April 2007 as the demand from China was lackluster. It is likely to remain sideways around the same price in May 2007. HDPE HDPE price remained stagnant at US $1280-1290/MT in the week of 16th April 2007 because of lack of demand from China & the other Asian countries. It is expected to remain around US $ 1300 in May 2007. PP PP remained stagnant with the price of US $ 1260-1270/MT in the week of 16th April 2007. It is not likely to move upwards in May 2007 & remain at the same level of US $ 1260-1270/MT. PVC PVC was rather strong due to good demand from China on account of seasonal demand. The price reached US $ 910-920/MT in the week of 16th April 2007. It is likely to remain harder in May 2007 & could go up to US $ 940/MT in May 2007. PS Higher benzene & styrene monomer price did not increase the price of GPPS beyond US$ 1400- 1410/MT in the week of 16thApril 2007. It could rise due to higher naphtha, benzene & styrene monomer prices. However, China is not strong in its requirements because of Labour Day holidays. It is therefore expected to have little movement in the price of GPPS in May 2007. At the most it could go up to US $ 1420/MT. ABS ABS remained inactive due to weaker demand in Asia & its main consumer (China). The price remained unaltered from the last week of US $ 1590-1610/MT in the week of 16th 2007. It is likely to see some upward movement due to higher prices of feedstocks in May 2007.