Outages push prices up

Journal Article · Wed Jan 15 04:00:00 EST 1997 · Chemical Week

OSTI ID:526101

Young, I

Spot methanol prices continue to soar in western Europe because of technical problems at a number of key plants. The latest casualties are in Germany, where two units were reportedly offstream at CW press time. The market`s problems have been compounded by cold weather, which has frozen canals in northwest Europe and hampered methanol distribution by barge. However, the market`s problems could soon be solved by the scheduled arrival of up to 20,000 m.t. of material from Trinidad and the US in the first half of January. Spot prices have risen from just under DM300/m.t. fob northwest Europe in mid-November to DM360/m.t., figures that make the first-quarter contract price of DM288/m.t. appear low. {open_quotes}We wanted to show our customers that we don`t squeeze them in bad times,{close_quotes} says a producer. In the US, the after-effects of last month`s explosion at Hoechst`s 200-million gal/year Clear Lake, TX may take a toll on contract pricing. Hoechst has announced a 7-cts/gal increase effective January 15, bringing the Gulf Coast list price to 64 cts/gal fob. The Clear Lake outage has tightened markets considerably and has made a case for some kind of increase. Hoechst says it expects the Clear Lake plant to be restarted in late February.

• OSTI ID: 526101
• Journal Information: Chemical Week, Journal Name: Chemical Week Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 159; ISSN CHWKA9; ISSN 0009-272X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

09 BIOMASS FUELS
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
AVAILABILITY
CHEMICAL PLANTS
DISTRIBUTION
EXPLOSIONS
FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY
FUEL SUPPLIES
INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS
MARITIME TRANSPORT
MARKET
METHANOL
OUTAGES
PRICES
SHORTAGES
SPOT MARKET
WEATHER
WESTERN EUROPE