US spot ethylene jumped on Thursday by 1.25 cents/lb ($28/tonne) as prices reacted to outages left in the aftermath of Hurricane Humberto, market sources said.
US spot ethylene for September was heard traded as high as 47.5 cents/lb. That figure compares with a deal at 46.25 cents/lb before the storm on Wednesday.
Humberto prompted more participants to resort to spot material, one source said, adding that the disruptions on Thursday left the market with no choice but to respond.
Humberto swiftly grew in strength from a tropical depression on Wednesday to a hurricane, wind gusts of up to 80 miles (129 km)/hour, early on Thursday before it made landfall. It has since been downgraded to a tropical storm.
Among the outages caused by Humberto was Chevron Phillips Chemical's cracker in east Texas.
Refiner Valero s 325,000 bbl/day plant and Shell's Motiva refinery, both in Port Arthur, Texas, were also shut down because of Humberto.
Total said that it hoped to begin restarting units at its Port Arthur, refinery after a power failure on Wednesday night. Total said the power failure at the plant was due to Hurricane Humberto, which had . Humberto has since weaked to a tropical storm.
Total's Port Arthur plant produces 300,000 tonne/year of benzene and 120,000 tonne/year of propylene, according to global chemical market intelligence service ICIS pricing.
Chevron Phillips Chemical's Texas plant in Port Arthur experienced a power outage on Wednesday night, but it said efforts were already underway to restore power to the plant. The Chevron Phillips plant produces 145,000 tonne/year of toluene and 500,000 tonne/year of propylene, according to ICIS pricing.
ExxonMobil also said there was a unit shutdown at its plant in Beaumont, Texas, but noted that it was due to unknown reasons.
The Beaumont plant produces 315,000 tonne/year of benzene and 826,000 tonne/year of ethylene, according to ICIS pricing.
US spot ethylene for September was heard traded as high as 47.5 cents/lb. That figure compares with a deal at 46.25 cents/lb before the storm on Wednesday.
Humberto prompted more participants to resort to spot material, one source said, adding that the disruptions on Thursday left the market with no choice but to respond.
Humberto swiftly grew in strength from a tropical depression on Wednesday to a hurricane, wind gusts of up to 80 miles (129 km)/hour, early on Thursday before it made landfall. It has since been downgraded to a tropical storm.
Among the outages caused by Humberto was Chevron Phillips Chemical's cracker in east Texas.
Refiner Valero s 325,000 bbl/day plant and Shell's Motiva refinery, both in Port Arthur, Texas, were also shut down because of Humberto.
Total said that it hoped to begin restarting units at its Port Arthur, refinery after a power failure on Wednesday night. Total said the power failure at the plant was due to Hurricane Humberto, which had . Humberto has since weaked to a tropical storm.
Total's Port Arthur plant produces 300,000 tonne/year of benzene and 120,000 tonne/year of propylene, according to global chemical market intelligence service ICIS pricing.
Chevron Phillips Chemical's Texas plant in Port Arthur experienced a power outage on Wednesday night, but it said efforts were already underway to restore power to the plant. The Chevron Phillips plant produces 145,000 tonne/year of toluene and 500,000 tonne/year of propylene, according to ICIS pricing.
ExxonMobil also said there was a unit shutdown at its plant in Beaumont, Texas, but noted that it was due to unknown reasons.
The Beaumont plant produces 315,000 tonne/year of benzene and 826,000 tonne/year of ethylene, according to ICIS pricing.
