(ICIS) -- US propylene contract prices for November settled down 6 cents/lb ($132/tonne, ┬95/tonne) from October as inventory levels remain high, market participants said on Monday.
The decline, took polymer-grade propylene (RGP) contracts down to 58 cents/lb, and the chemical-grade propylene (CGP) contract down to 56.50 cents/lb.
Initial settlements were first heard on Friday for PGP, but the CGP contract was still in negotiations.
Producers had nominated declines of 3.5 and 4 cents/lb for the month while a buyer predicted contracts would drop by as much as 6 cents/lb.
The settlement came as US propylene inventories gained 2% to 3.786m bbl in the first week of November from the previous week, continuing the increase that began in mid-September, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Major US producers of PGP and CGP include Chevron Phillips Chemical, Enterprise Products, ExxonMobil, LyondellBasell, Petrologistics and Shell Chemical. The main buyers include Dow Chemical, INEOS, Ascend Performance Materials and Total.
Perspectives of development of polymer markets, pricing issues and other important aspects will be discussed at The Polymers Summit-2011, which will be held in Moscow on November 30, 2011 at the Ritz Carlton Hotel. The Summit will be organized by MRC with the support of ICIS. The main idea of the Summit is to find a "the golden mean" between producers and converters. When producers receive exactly such margin of production, which helps them to invest in production expansion in order to substitute polymers imports, and the converters receive such price of feedstock that helps them to compete imported finished products. The Summit site gives an access to the live video of the Summit, speakers" presentations, as well as opportunities to ask questions or make appointments to any Summit partcipant.
MRC