NWE Monoethylene Glycol Prices Stabilize After Spike

The recent surge in monoethylene glycol prices came to an end last week, as market activity slackened amid limited availability and buyers' hopes that prices will ease.

Spot prices were assessed Friday at Eur950/mt ($1,010/mt) FCA NWE and Eur910/mt CIF NWE, unchanged on the week. Prices had risen 27.86% since the end of October, on limited imports and constrained European production.

However, buyers' willingness to pay higher prices was waning: "People don't want to pay these high prices and imports will come in and [production] will come back... so everyone is saying 'let's wait and see,'" a trade source said Friday.

There was some easing of tight supply as BASF returned to normal operating levels last week at its site in Antwerp, Belgium, a company source said.

The company would not comment. BASF's Antwerp plant has ethylene oxide capacity of 500,000 mt/year and MEG capacity of 350,000 mt/year.

Ineos declared force majeure on MEG, co-product diethylene glycol and feedstock EO November 9, a company source said Wednesday.

"The issue happened in Cologne but supply from our three sites to our customers was put on allocation," the source said. Ineos was not available to comment.

The company's Dormagen plant at Cologne, Germany, has annual EO capacity of 290,000 mt/year and 150,000 mt/year of MEG.

Sasol has also been experiencing production issues, market sources said. The company was not available to comment.

Its plant at Marl, Germany, has EO capacity of 216,000 mt/year and MEG capacity of 15,000 mt/year. In total, up to 13.7% of EO capacity and 8.57% of MEG capacity is affected by production.