Amid improved supply, weakening demand and plunging oil prices, US front-month spot ethylene settled at its lowest in almost 30 months, at the end of last week. As per ICIS, Front-month December material traded at 41.750 cents/lb ($920/tonne), its lowest since a trade at 41.625 cents/lb during the week ended 22 June 2012. Spot prices have fallen by more than 30 cents/lb after they peaked in September, as global energy values have fallen enough to make overseas derivatives more competitive. This has pushed US derivative producers to lower operating rates, especially as year-end inventory taxes are about to be assessed. Ethylene supply in the US has also improved significantly since September, with several cracker restarts leaving the market with only one major cracker outage. From March until October, sources said an average of 8-12% of ethylene capacity was down because of production issues.
15-Dec-14 
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