The excellent ‘ICIS Weekly Margin Report – PE’ is starting to tell a very sad story about polymer margins. The chart (above) shows that the ethylene margin, in yellow, has been falling steadily since the start of the year. The same is true for the HDPE margin, in blue. And the Report notes that if market conditions don’t improve, then Q2 performance ‘will see the weakest quarterly result since 2003’
The Report focuses on European markets, but its conclusions apply to all major regions. It calculates the average Q2 margin for integrated HDPE producers is currently €312/tonne, and for standalone producers it is just €61/tonne. It also calculates that margins for the month of May are now as bad as they were at the trough last December. And with feedstocks costs still rising, producers and consumers clearly face a most difficult position next month.
Update, 27 May. The latest Report, just published, shows that the current margin for integrated HDPE producers is now just €118/t, as naphtha prices rose over 6% last week.
- Our work
- REPORTS
- The pH ReportMonthly focus on what is driving the global economy
- NewsletterWeekly spotlight on a key issue impacting the global economy
- New Normal eBookBoom, Gloom and the New Normal: How the Western Babyboomers are Changing Demand Patterns, Again
- White PaperA Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector – IEA May 2021 report synopsis
- White PaperRenewable Carbon for Chemicals and Derived Materials – Nova-Institute April 2021 report synopsis
- REPORTS
- About us