HOUSTON (ICIS news)--The ICIS Petrochemical Index (IPEX) for November surged by 4% to a reading of 284.48 points from 273.63 in October, following two consecutive months at a decrease.
The index was up 6.6% from a year earlier. The latest month saw nine of the 12 petrochemical grades in the IPEX basket post increases and three post decreases.
The most significant gain was a 77% jump in global methanol prices, led by a 78% surge in Europe and Asia. US prices were close behind with a 74% jump.
While global methanol demand was healthy, the methanol industry lost 1.7m tonnes of production during the third quarter, sources said. About 727,000 tonnes of that production loss was due to the shortage of feedstock natural gas supplies at Methanex s production complex in southern Chile.
"There have been a number of other plant production issues that have also tightened global supplies," ICIS pricing said. "And demand has also firmed as methanol is used for de-icing oil and gas wells."
The shortage prompted SABIC to postpone its methanol shutdown in Saudi Arabia from two weeks in November to the second-half of 2008, a company source said.
None of the global petrochemical grades registered a pronounced drop. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) prices fell the most at 0.75% globally, including a 4.9% dip in Asia.
Asia PVC prices continued to slide on market sentiment and surplus supply, sources said.
PVC trades to non-China markets remained slow as buyers were reluctant to take any meaningful quantity for stocking before the year end. Sliding prices also kept buyers from stocktaking in anticipation of a further drop in prices.
Published at the beginning of each month, the IPEX provides an independent indicator of average change in world petrochemical prices. Dating back to January 1993, historical ICIS prices for a basket of 12 essential petrochemical grades in the US, Western Europe, and the northeast Asian markets have been weighted by regional nameplate capacity to generate a monthly index value.
The IPEX product basket comprises ethylene, propylene, benzene, toluene, paraxylene, styrene, methanol, butadiene, PVC, polyethylene, polypropylene, and polystyrene.
The index was up 6.6% from a year earlier. The latest month saw nine of the 12 petrochemical grades in the IPEX basket post increases and three post decreases.
The most significant gain was a 77% jump in global methanol prices, led by a 78% surge in Europe and Asia. US prices were close behind with a 74% jump.
While global methanol demand was healthy, the methanol industry lost 1.7m tonnes of production during the third quarter, sources said. About 727,000 tonnes of that production loss was due to the shortage of feedstock natural gas supplies at Methanex s production complex in southern Chile.
"There have been a number of other plant production issues that have also tightened global supplies," ICIS pricing said. "And demand has also firmed as methanol is used for de-icing oil and gas wells."
The shortage prompted SABIC to postpone its methanol shutdown in Saudi Arabia from two weeks in November to the second-half of 2008, a company source said.
None of the global petrochemical grades registered a pronounced drop. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) prices fell the most at 0.75% globally, including a 4.9% dip in Asia.
Asia PVC prices continued to slide on market sentiment and surplus supply, sources said.
PVC trades to non-China markets remained slow as buyers were reluctant to take any meaningful quantity for stocking before the year end. Sliding prices also kept buyers from stocktaking in anticipation of a further drop in prices.
Published at the beginning of each month, the IPEX provides an independent indicator of average change in world petrochemical prices. Dating back to January 1993, historical ICIS prices for a basket of 12 essential petrochemical grades in the US, Western Europe, and the northeast Asian markets have been weighted by regional nameplate capacity to generate a monthly index value.
The IPEX product basket comprises ethylene, propylene, benzene, toluene, paraxylene, styrene, methanol, butadiene, PVC, polyethylene, polypropylene, and polystyrene.
