Ethylene cost in NEA reaches multi months high, location gap with SEA enlarged 

In Asia, ethylene costs continue to surge in the past week on the back of tightening supply stemming from a series of crackers shutdown. Over the past week, ethylene price based on CFR Northeast Asia term jumped $70/ton to reach the highest level seen since 9 July 2015, CommoPlast data showed.

Meanwhile, it is reported that ethylene supply within Southeast Asia region remains comfortable, which limit the extent of price increment in the same period. This has enlarged the location gap between the two regions to $165/ton at the current date. In fact, the above graph shows that since late November 2016, ethylene price based on CFR Northeast Asia has been constantly keeping a gap of $100-165/ton with Southeast Asia market, and this gap might further widen in the near term, players said.

Industry sources commented that ethylene prices in the Northeast Asia region are able to maintain such firm stance mainly due to healthy demand from the styrene monomer sector, which enjoy robust margins throughout the past couple of months. There are not many styrene monomer makers in Southeast Asia but mainly other ethylene derivatives such as VCM and PE, which are not having as good margins. 

A regional PE trader commented, “Producers might attempt to lift their PE offers in the coming days, however the pace of price increment in Southeast Asia might not be as fast and the main support factor would still be supply tightness.”