Oil trades near 17-month high

SEATTLE (polymers.in):  WTI settled higher for an eighth straight session, capping the longest stretch of gains in seven years as optimism mounts that major producers will make good on output-cut pledges in January.

Oil futures dipped on Thursday after a surprise build in U.S. crude inventories reversed an advance in prices that had boosted the benchmarks to their highest levels since July last year.

Rising crude prices and a deregulatory push in Washington may spur as many as 40 companies to hold initial public offerings over the next two years, potentially tripling 2016’s activity, according to Maynard Holt, chief executive officer at Houston-based investment bank Tudor Pickering Holt & Co.

Pricing volatility hit the North American polypropylene resin market hard in 2016 - even as demand for the material looks to be almost flat for the year.

Capacity additions from Braskem Idesa, Ineos Sasol and Nova Chemicals will have added more than 4 billion pounds of PE capacity in North America by mid-2017.

The North American PVC market would be happy if 2017 matched 2016. Elsewhere, as the year draws to a close, the regional PET market is doing OK, while the polystyrene market hopes that better days are ahead.

Export spot prices of PVC in the US fell last week as buying activity in Asia has begun to decline, according to ICIS, citing sources in the market.

China’s imports for major polymers including homo PP, PVC, LDPE and PS posted a visible contraction in the first eleven months of 2016 and therefore, these polymers are expected to end the year with a similar reduction in import market size when the data for December is revealed.

In Africa, many PP and PE players report that they are expecting to receive January offers with rollovers to some increases, considering OPEC and non-OPEC countries’ lower output decision, which may affect the upstream markets and thereby result in a firming trend in the market.

In Turkey, import PVC prices for European origins were firming up since early October due to reduced allocations from the region during the last quarter of 2016. This caused European PVC prices in Turkey to move above the local European PVC market on dollar terms since mid-November.

New polyethylene supply expected to come on-stream in 2017 is likely to weigh down on Gulf Cooperation Council spot prices in the first half of the next year.

In Turkey’s import PP and PE markets, initial offers and sell ideas were voiced with some increases for January based upon higher upstream costs in global markets.

The FOB Korea propylene benchmark jumped $19/mt from last Friday to $870/mt Tuesday, the highest level since July 8, 2015, when the price was assessed at $880/mt, S&P Global Platts data showed.

Despite higher upstream energy values, ethylene prices dropped in Asia last week. The price fall was supported by weaker demand trends in key markets like China.

A Polymerupdate source in Malaysia informed that the company has planned to resume operations at the plant in early-January 2017.

Saudi Arabian company Sadara Chemical is in plans to take its mixed feed cracker off-stream for a maintenance turnaround.

Courtesy: www.polymers.io