Spot olefins price ideas were wide Monday, and no new trades were confirmed. NGLs and energies were mixed. Resins trade was thin as participants watched upstream markets.
March ethylene was offered at 26 cpp against no bids, and April was bid at 17 cpp against offers at 26 cpp. 2Q was offered at 24 cpp against no bids. 2Q, 2H and June ethylene were talked on ethane-based formulas. March ethylene traded on Friday at 23 cpp, 23.5 cpp and 24 cpp. Midstream markets were somewhat subdued on the first day of Spring Break for many Texas schools.
March refinery grade propylene was bid at 19 cpp and offered at 22 cpp. March last traded on Friday at 20 cpp. No April RGP markets were heard talked today. Polymer grade and chemical grade spot markets were also not heard discussed.
With the first quarter nearing completion, the state of demand and the availability of supply remained the hot topics of conversation in today’s olefin markets. Several crackers, including Formosa, Shell and Sasol, have restarted this month. Dow was scheduled to restart one of its units this past weekend, and Westlake is expected to restart one of its units at the end of this week.
Energies and NGLs were mixed. April crude futures were up $1.10/bbl to settle at $47.35/bbl, while nat gas was down 8 cents to settle at $3.85/mmBtu. Ethane closed at 31.875 cpg, down 0.875 cpg, while propane was unchanged at 63.5 cpg. Butane was up 0.25 cpg at 77.75 cpg and isobutane eased 1.5 cpg to 83 cpg. Natural gasoline lost 2.25 cpg to close at 94.25 cpg. Benzene was slighly lower, and the forward FOB market diverged from the DDP market. March benzene closed at 127-130 cpg on a DDP or FOB basis. April closed at 129-133 cpg DDP and 131-135 cpg FOB. May closed at 133-138 cpg DDP and 134-140 cpg FOB.
Spot resins trade started the week slow. Traders remained reluctant to do more than back-to-back transactions, and processors kept to the sidelines of the market, coming in only to buy small volumes on an as-needed basis. Dow’s LDPE plant at Freeport is scheduled to shut during March 2009, and Sunoco’s PP plant at Bayport is scheduled to shut during April. FHR’s PE and PP operations at Odessa are scheduled to shut by the end of June.
CLOSING MARKETS: BID/ASK
NGLs
Ethane Mar. 0.31625 @ 0.32125
Ethane Apr. 0.31625 @ 0.32125
Propane Mar. 0.63250 @ 0.63750
Propane Apr. 0.63750 @ 0.64250
Butane Mar. 0.77500 @ 0.78000
Isobutane Mar. 0.82750 @ 0.83250
Nat gasoline Mar. 0.94000 @ 0.94500
Olefins
Ethylene Mt. B-Eq Mar. – @ –
Ethylene Mt. B-Eq Apr. 0.17000 @ –
Ethylene Mt. B-Wms Mar. – @ 0.26000
Ethylene Mt. B-Wms Apr. 0.17000 @ 0.26000
Ethylene Choctaw Mar. – @ –
Ethylene Choctaw Apr. – @ –
RGP Mt. B-EPC Mar. 0.19000 @ 0.22000
RGP Mt. B-EPC Apr. – @ –
Benzene Mar. 1.27000 @ 1.30000
Benzene Apr. 1.29000 @ 1.33000
Polyolefins
CoPP – Inj 0.3400 @ 0.3800
HoPP – Inj 0.3200 @ 0.3600
LDPE – Film 0.4600 @ 0.5000
LLDPE – Film 0.4100 @ 0.4500
HDPE – Inj 0.4000 @ 0.4400
HDPE – Blow Mold 0.4000 @ 0.4400
HMWPE – Film 0.4400 @ 0.4800
HIPS 0.5000 @ 0.5400
GPPS 0.4400 @ 0.4800
TPE SPOT FLOOR SUMMARY
CoPP – Inj 4,426,828 0.365 (low offer) 0.480 (high offer)
HoPP – Inj 3,587,656 0.345 (low offer) 0.440 (high offer)
LDPE – Film 3,268,760 0.480 (low offer) 0.580 (high offer)
LLDPE – Film 2,914,932 0.430 (low offer) 0.530 (high offer)
HDPE – Inj 2,332,104 0.430 (low offer) 0.520 (high offer)
HDPE – Blow Mold 2,303,116 0.420 (low offer) 0.510 (high offer)
HMWPE – Film 1,397,288 0.450 (low offer) 0.510 (high offer)
HIPS 300,000 0.500 (low offer) 0.630 (high offer)
GPPS 222,000 0.470 (low offer) 0.500 (high offer)
Total 20,752,684 lbs
SPREADS
Ethylene – Ethane 0.103
Ethylene – Propane 0.060
Ethylene – Butane 0.050
Ethylene-Nat gasoline 0.040
Ethylene – RGP 0.005
RGP-Propane 0.055
LDPE film – Ethylene 0.270
LLDPE film – Ethylene 0.220
HDPE blow mold – Ethylene 0.210
HDPE inj – Ethylene 0.210
HDPE HMW – Ethylene 0.250
LDPE film – Ethane 0.373
LLDPE film – Ethane 0.323
HDPE blow mold – Ethane 0.313
HDPE inj – Ethane 0.313
HDPE HMW – Ethane 0.353
PP homo – RGP 0.135
PP copol – RGP 0.155
PP homo – Propane 0.190
PP copol – Propane 0.210
GPPS – Benzene 0.286
GPPS – Ethylene 0.250
HIPS – Benzene 0.346
HIPS – Ethylene 0.310
LDPE film-HDPE film 0.020
PP homo-HDPE inj -0.080
HIPS – PP Copol 0.160
Propane/Ethane forward curve
Month C3 LDH / C2 XLDH
Mar. 0.63500 / 0.31875
Apr. 0.64000 / 0.31875
May 0.64500 / 0.31875
June 0.65000 / 0.31875
July 0.65750 / 0.31875
Aug. 0.66500 / 0.31875
Sep. 0.67250 / 0.31875
Oct. 0.68000 / 0.32125
Nov. 0.68750 / 0.32375
Dec. 0.69750 / 0.32625
Jan. 0.68750 / 0.33125
Feb. 0.66750 / 0.33625
Mar. 0.67250 / 0.34125
Apr. 0.67750 / 0.34625
May 0.68250 / 0.35125
June 0.68750 / 0.35625
July 0.69250 / 0.36125
Aug. 0.69750 / 0.36625
NGL closing prices – Mar.:
Ethane 0.31875
Propane 0.63500
Butane 0.77750
Isobutane 0.83000
Nat gasoline 0.94250
Source: petrochemwire
