While on one hand ethylene spot price in Far East market was raised to US $1,700, on the other, prices of Naphtha weakened. This scenario is sure to benefit light cracking plants, helping them to gross significant profits.
Recognizing this opportunity, CPC Corporation Taiwan and some major light cracking plants in Indonesia have cancelled reduction plan and are opting for full production capacity strategy.
Market administration recently stressed that, according to the pricing formula of CPC and Formosa Petrochemical Corp, July retroactive price of ethylene is expected to stand around $1700 per ton.
Thus, coupled with high value of propylene, butadiene, benzene and other raw materials, CPC and Formosa Petrochemical Corp are expected to become profitable, starting July.
In mid-March this year, light cracking plants, relying on naphtha as feeding material, incurred record loss of $200-250 per ton from ethylene production.
However, spot price of naphtha slid from $1,246 to $1,174 per ton, and that of ethylene increased $600 per ton in early-July. Ethylene production loss of light cracking plants in Asia came down to just $5-10 per ton in second week of July.
Fibre2fashion News Desk - China
marketing@alchempro.com
