Oil declines as glut worries face OPEC cuts

SEATTLE (polymers.in):  Crude prices fell on Wednesday as American crude supplies climbed 9.53 million barrels to 518.1 million, the highest level in weekly data going back to 1982.

Oil prices ended steady on Friday but lower on the week, with U.S. crude notching its first weekly decline in five weeks, as the market weighed rising U.S. drilling and record stockpiles against efforts by major producers to cut output to reduce a global glut.

The North African country’s crude production is due to reach 1.2 million barrels a day by August and 1.7 million by March 2018 when the nation’s ports and export terminals will be operating at full capacity, Jadalla Alaokali, board member of Libya’s National Oil Corp., said in an interview in Cairo.

State-owned Pemex has begun a round of price increase initiatives in Mexico averaging more than 5% combining all grades, market sources said on Thursday.

PVC resin sales in the U.S. and Canada enjoyed solid growth in 2016, while North American sales for polypropylene and polystyrene resins saw slight upticks.

Dow will implement a Real 400/mt ($130/mt) increase on all polyethylene grades sold in Brazil, effective March 1, the company said in a letter to customers seen Tuesday by S&P Global Platts.

Polypropylene (PP) prices in Europe are at their highest level since October 2015, according to ICIS data.

Polypropylene import prices in southeast Asia stood at an 18-month high and may remain bullish owing to tight availability of spot supply, market players said last Monday.

After returning from the holidays celebrated in early February, Chinese players have met firm prices in the import market; however, LDPE appears to have defied this trend as some softening is visible in new offers to the country.

The possible target export markets are China, Turkey, Africa and southeast Asia as India’s domestic PE capacity will increase by 2.01m tonnes by mid-year.

A major Taiwanese producer announced their March PVC prices with increases from February based on improving demand in India amidst the fading impact of the local currency’s demonetization as well as the approaching high season.

HDPE prices in this week in Asia were assessed higher. A combination of triggers were responsible for the price rise including improved regional buying trends, tight product availability and firmer upstream costs.

In Egypt, supply concerns in the PP market have increased recently amidst the ongoing and expected maintenance shutdowns both at the local and the import suppliers’ plants in the Middle East.

CIF Northwest European naphtha cargoes have fallen to a six-week low versus the swap after a slowing of spot buying interest and a lack of blending demand pressured cash premiums for open specification naphtha, sources said.

A Polymerupdate source in Saudi Arabia informed that Sadara has resumed operations at all PE units last weekend. The units were shut for a planned maintenance in the last week of December 2016.

A Polymerupdate source in South Korea informed that Hanwha Chem has planned to shut its PVC plant in March 2017 for a period of around 10 - 15 days. The exact date of the shutdown not yet confirmed.

Courtesy: www.polymers.io