December IPEX down 6% on sharp price drops in northeast Asia, US

LONDON (ICIS)–The ICIS Petrochemical Index (IPEX) dropped by 6.2% month on month in December, tracking price declines across the main petrochemical and plastic global markets, not least in northeast Asia and the US.

Northeast Asia posted the largest decline, with some commodities such as butadiene falling by up to 17% month on month. Every petrochemical in the region fell in December.

US Gulf values also went down substantially, although some exceptions such as paraxylene and benzene posted a small rise.  Similarly to northeast Asia, butadiene experienced the sharpest fall, of up to 19%.

Northwest Europe posted the softest decrease, falling by only 1.6% month on month. The decline was driven by products like butadiene and toluene, with drops of up to 21% in December. Polystyrene posted the largest rise, moving up 4.3%.

The Global IPEX index has risen by 20% year on year.

The monthly IPEX indices provide a snapshot of the petrochemicals and plastics markets in the three major producing and consuming regions, as well as globally.

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The IPEX table and charts below are ‘live’ and update on a regular basis. The latest price increases are shown and values of the regional and global IPEXes.

Price changes for the commodities used to create the IPEX can be captured by users on the price table allowing comparisons to be made on a flexible monthly basis.

Likewise, IPEX values can be captured by clicking into the chart are and downloading current and historical data using the ‘download’ button and selecting an option.

Front page picture source: Carsten Leuzinger/imageBROKER/Shutterstock 

The ICIS petrochemical index tracks the movement of prices for the 12 major petrochemicals and polymers: ethylene, propylene, butadiene, benzene, toluene, paraxylene (PX), polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), styrene, polystyrene (PS), methanol and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) with the regional indexes weighted by capacity. The IPEX values are related to a January 2000 base of 100. IPEX values are subject to change retrospectively as monthly contract prices are settled.