During the first half of the current fortnight, price of MEG went down sharply by US $40 per ton and now is hovering at levels of $430 per ton, the levels it had attained four months back in November 2008. Sellers were under pressure; due to ease in supply situation and cutthroat competition has forced them to cut their prices.
In Asian region, drop in MEG prices was due to the continual and intensive arrival of import cargoes at various ports and it has been reported that China imported 479,700 ton in January 2009, a jump of 100,000 tons compared to arrivals in the previous month of December 2008.
During the first half of the current fortnight, market prices of MEG in European markets stood at €480 per ton, while in the markets of the US it touched $610 per ton. In the Chinese market, prices were assessed down to $430 per ton, with S E Asian market prices of MEG also retaining the same levels.
Earlier, in the beginning of the first half of the current fortnight, MEG prices in the Asian market had witnessed a decline of $10 per ton to close at $460 per ton. The prices of MEG seem to have bottomed out as demand in upstream sectors, slowly showing signs of recovery.
Price of crude oil has also crossed the $45 per barrel psychological barrier and prices of ethylene are also expected to move upwards in tandem with that of crude oil, which in turn is expected to lead the recovery in prices of MEG in the near short term.
Click here to view price trends of March 2009.
Fibre2fashion News Desk - India
marketing@alchempro.com
