Oil ends up as Saudi cut production

SEATTLE (polymers.in):  Oil prices rose nearly 2 percent on Wednesday on expectations U.S. crude inventories have dropped and on signs that the world's top oil exporters will stick to agreed output cuts that took effect this week.

Oil prices rose on Thursday in an up-and-down session, lifted by news that Saudi Arabia had cut production to meet OPEC's agreement to reduce output after prices fell on data showing a surprisingly large increase in U.S. gasoline and distillate inventories.

State oil giant Saudi Aramco has started talks with customers globally to discuss possible supply cuts of up to 7 percent for Saudi crude loadings in February, three sources with knowledge of the matter said on Thursday.

U.S. crude oil inventories fell sharply as higher refining runs prompted a surge in gasoline and distillate stocks in the last week of 2016, the Energy Information Administration said on Thursday.

According to The Plastics Exchange, both polyethylene and polypropylene spot prices began to recover earlier in December as material started to dry up. Upward market momentum will likely continue at least into the first couple of weeks of the New Year as rumors begin to swirl of a $.05/lb PE contract price increase for February.

According to ChemOrbis Import Statistics, American PVC has been losing its market share in Turkey since 2014 while imports of American PVC in China improved in 2016 contrary to the trend of the past four years.

The overall outlook for European polyvinyl chloride in 2017 is for stable to slightly increasing demand and steady supply conditions.

Global polyolefin players have started 2017 following a year of struggle amidst volatile crude oil prices, political tensions across the globe and depreciating currencies especially following the presidential elections in the US.

PP prices rose South Asia, but declined in Far East Asia. The price fall was in line with weak demand trends in the region coupled with a drop in PP futures on Dalian Commodity Exchange in China.

The southeast Asia polypropylene market faces a cloudy outlook as lacklustre downstream demand amid economical and geopolitical stresses across the region threatens to offset potential bullishness in the market following OPEC’s agreement to curb oil production, industry sources said.

The price fall was in line with a drop in upstream crude values last Friday coupled with dull regional demand trends.

Asia paraxylene market fundamentals for 2017 will likely hinge new production capacities coming on stream and on downstream purified terephthalic acid (PTA) restarts.

Asian monoethylene glycol market in 2017 is expected to face challenges of longer supply and slower growth in downstream polyester fibre, yarn and polyester terephthalate (PET) sectors.

A Polymerupdate source in India informed that Reliance has scheduled to shut the Hazira PVC plant on January 7, 2017. The planned maintenance is expected to remain in force for a period of around 15 days.

A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the Sinopec Jingmen plant was taken off-stream for a scheduled maintenance turnaround on December 15, 2016 and it will remain shut until January 3, 2017.

Courtesy: www.polymers.io