America: July US ethylene CPs could fall on lower spot, improved supply

Chemical News: America: July US ethylene CPs could fall on lower spot, improved supply

https://www.chemnet.com Jul 30,2010
July ethylene prices in the US could move lower as sources this week
anticipated a possible 2-3 cents/lb drop in the July contract.

Sources pointed to the gulf between current spot levels and the June
contract as justification for a potential decrease. July spot offers were seen
at 35 cents/lb MtB Equ against bids at 33 cents/lb MtB Wms while August was
bid at 33.125 cents/lb MtB Wms against offers at 35 cents/lb MtB Wms.

Given a mid-point near 34 cents/lb for August, the gap between spot
levels and June contracts at 39.50 cents/lb remained near 5.5 cents/lb.
Sources said that could be enough to warrant a decrease yet no confirmed
announcements were heard at time of press.

Additionally, supply could improve in August if Dow was able to restart
its LHC 7 olefins unit at Freeport, Texas. The unit came offline following a
trip on its cracked gas compressor. Sources suggested the company was
targeting an August 1 restart date, but confirmation was not immediately
available. Dow has an estimated ethylene capacity of 1.3 billion lbs/year.

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