Methanex Announced Its New Regional Contract Methanol Prices

Methanex, the world’s largest producer and supplier of methanol to major international markets, has announced its new regional contract methanol prices for North America and Asia Pacific regions.

For the North American region, Methanex has unaltered its non-discounted reference price for September 1-30, 2014 at US$ 1.45/Gal or $482/mt (converted to $/mt using a conversion rate of 332.6 Gal per mt) from the previous month’s price, according to the company’s website.

For the Asia-Pacific region, however, the company has increased its Asian posted contract price for September 1-30, 2014, to $420/mt, compared to August contract price of $410/mt.

For European region, Methanex had earlier announced its contract price for July1-September 30, 2014 period to be €322/mt, much lower than the contract price of €412/mt in the second quarter of this year.

Methanol is an organic chemical that is used in the textile industry in manufacturing processes.

Last week, Methanex Corporation said that it expects around 20 percent gas curtailments to its two methanol plants in Trinidad in the second half of 2014.

Methanex said the National Gas Company (NGC) has advised it to expect higher gas curtailments in the second half of 2014, compared to the first half, due to upstream platform maintenance and tie-in activities and the ongoing mismatch between upstream commitments and downstream demand from customers.

Methanex said it continues to work with the Trinidad Government and other stakeholders with a view to resolving gas supply shortfalls to its Trinidad plants. However, the methanol producer added that the situation is dynamic and it is difficult to forecast the gas curtailments or when 100% gas supply can be expected to return.

Methanex is the operator of two plants in Trinidad, Titan and Atlas and holds 100% and 63.1% interests respectively, in the two facilities. The combined production capacity of the two plants located in Point Lisas Industrial Estate in Central Trinidad is around two million tonnes.

For the second quarter of 2014, Methanex reported adjusted EBITDA of $160 million, compared to $157 million reported in the quarter ended June 30, 2013. Adjusted net income stood at $91 million or $0.94 per share on a diluted basis in the second quarter of 2014, compared to adjusted net income of $99 million or $1.02 per share from a year earlier.