(ICIS) -- Asia's diethylene glycol (DEG) prices are expected to fall further through the rest of the year because of the arrival of a large volume of deep-sea cargoes in China, market sources said on Thursday. The prices fell to a 16-month low of $980-990/tonne (┬725-733/tonne) CFR (cost & freight) CMP (China Main Port) on 17 November, down by $10-30/tonne from the previous week, according to ICIS.
A total of 50,000-55,000 tonnes of deep-sea cargoes for loading in December were heard to be offloaded into China, traders said.
China normally imports 25,000-30,000 tonnes/month of deep-sea cargoes, with 80-85% coming from the Middle East. The remaining imports are from the region, mainly Taiwan. ⌠We received offers of 2,000 tonnes of Canada-origin cargoes from US-based Dow Chemical, which was not seen in the market in the last two years, a major Shanghai-based trader said. In addition, there were offers of 3,000 tonnes of Canada-origin cargoes from Shell, the trader added.
The demand in Europe is poor possibly because of the slowdown in the solar panel manufacturing industry, where DEG is used as a cutting solution, according to an industry source. China rarely imports DEG from Europe and regularly imports the material from Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Kuwait and Iran.
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.