MOSCOW (MRC) -- The August contract price of propylene was settled in Europe up by EUR58/tonne from the previous month. At the same time, the difference in monomer and polymer prices has been quite large for several months already, and on the back of this, European producers rolled over July PP prices for August shipments with a few exceptions, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.
Negotiations over August export prices of European PP began last week. All market participants said most European producers still had export restrictions, especially, on propylene copolymers. Producers also announced a roll-over of July PP prices for August shipments, with propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) raffia grade, for which some producers had cut prices, being the exception.
European producers had the largest restrictions on PP exports to the CIS markets in May-June, when export quotas were virtually completely absent from most of the sellers. The availability of PP for export has increased from some producers for the past two months, but it was often typical for homopolymer PP.
Deals for August shipments of homopolymer PP were done in the range of EUR1,550-1,640/tonne FCA, whereas last month's deals were done in the range of EUR1,560-1,640/tonne FCA. Deals for block copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) started from EUR1,800/tonne FCA and higher, which corresponded to the level a month earlier.
MRC