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Production restarts threaten to spoil bumper year for Europe’s crackers Platts Special Report

August, 2014

By Daved Chohan, Editor, Petrochemicals

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Special Report: European Crackers

“After years of bad news and rationalizations, olefin and polyolefin produces have experienced 6 months of improved margins and higher run rates. This special report looks at the reason for this and contextualizes it within an increasingly competitive global environment.”

This Special Report includes commentary on:

• Variable Margins/Cracker Operating Rates

• Global ethylene prices

• Chinese CTO/MTO/MTP projects

• Polymer imports

• Europe PE plant closures

• PP prices over 2014

• Convergence of PP and LDPE prices over 2014

• Regional polyethylene net trade

• Regional polypropylene net trade

• Ethylene variable cost curve and cumulative capacity additions

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Special Report: European Crackers

Read the full report now:

Production restarts threaten to spoil bumper year for Europe’s crackers

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Special Report: European Crackers

PRODUCTION RESTARTS THREATEN TO SPOIL BUMPER YEAR FOR EUROPE’S CRACKERS

After years of bad news and rationalization, olefin and polyolefin producers have enjoyed six months of improved margins and increased run rates so far this year. This was largely driven by cracking liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), which is trading at record discounts below naphtha – Europe’s traditional feedstock.

The onslaught of LPG cracking has given Europe a peek into the future of a world where gas becomes more dominant as a feedstock. Lower ethylene prices, higher propylene prices, unexpected exports to Asia and a converter-driven shift away

from polypropylene-based products to polyethylene has been the impact…

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Special Report: European Crackers

Download the full report here:

Production restarts threaten to spoil bumper year for Europe’s crackers

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Special Report: European Crackers