Weekly Market Features

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Petrochemicals

Steam-cracking favorability has fallen – what does this mean for seaborne demand for the remainder of 2024? – Week 37 2024

Sep 16, 2024

The propane-naphtha spread has significantly narrowed in the last week or so, brought on by the decline in crude oil prices after market sentiment appeared more bearish going forward into 2025, ahead of the scale back in voluntary production cuts in the Middle East post Q4 2024. Both propane and naphtha prices subsided, but naphtha fell at a greater pace than propane [...]

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PDH

PDH operating rates in China – Week 36 2024

Sep 09, 2024

Seven new PDH plants have started in China in 2024 so far with the potential for one more to begin before the end of the year. Most recently, last month Zhenhua Petrochemical’s new PDH plant achieved on spec propylene production adding to the current overcapacity seen in China at the moment [...]

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Pricing

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Propane prices vs LNG in the East – Week 35 2024

Sep 02, 2024

The price of LPG in the East vs LNG prices on a comparable mmbtu basis, has narrowed throughout the summer and as of late has shown an advantage over LNG [...]

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Supply Chain

USGC terminalling fees Impact on Export Supply Chain Econs – Week 32 2024

Aug 12, 2024

The recent hike of the USGC terminalling fees, has highlighted the export terminal capacity limitations, a challenge further exacerbated by recent weather impacts. This development also reaffirms that terminalling fees will remain a critical element in the supply value chain from the USGC to the Far East in the following months [...]

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Terminals

USGC terminal capacity under further pressure towards 2025 – Week 31 2024

Aug 05, 2024

The latest announcement from EPD has pushed back EHT terminal expansion by the end of 2026 (larger capacity) and brought forward the NRT terminal phase 1 completion [...]

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China

Chinese retail demand vs petrochemicals – Week 30 2024

Jul 29, 2024

Imports of LPG into China have continued to rise through 2024 reaching over 3.3 mm t in June 2024 – a similar level seen in 2023. The difference however is that back at the end of Q2 2023, inventory levels in China were on the rise, whereas in 2024, the increased levels of imports can be attributed to higher demand, not only inventory [...]

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Weather

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The effect of hurricane Beryl on USGC LPG exports – Week 29 2024

Jul 22, 2024

Hurricane Beryl struck the US Gulf Coast on Monday, July 8th, as a Category 1 storm, a significant downgrade from its Category 5 strength in the Caribbean. [...]

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US

US Gulf Hurricane Season Impact – Week 28 2024

Jul 15, 2024

Hurricane Beryl became the first significant Atlantic hurricane of the 2024 season when it landed in Matagorda on Monday 8th July. The impact on US Gulf cracker petchem production was limited – probably under 50 kt of ethylene capacity was lost, with ethane demand the major feedstock casualty [...]

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Production

OPEC+ recent decisions – Week 27 2024

Jul 08, 2024

Last month OPEC+ met to discuss crude oil production levels for the remainder of 2024 and 2025. Levels were set for OPEC and non-OPEC participating countries with the required production levels for 2025 much higher than currently reached for some of the main LPG producers in the Middle East [...]

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PDH

Asian Propylene Capacity – Week 26 2024

Jul 01, 2024

At the start of June, we saw variable margins for PDH operators in the Far East return to positive territory. After a number of months of negative margins for many propylene producers, this was a welcome sentiment [...]

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US

US NGL production short-term outlook – Week 25 2024

Jun 24, 2024

Despite the drop in natural gas prices since late February 2024, US NGL production has not only remained unaffected but has continued to grow based on historical and estimated production levels [...]

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