Daily Chemical Reaction
For What It’s Worth – Does A Cleaner Image Benefit LYB More Than Potential Lost Profit From Its Refinery?
Key Points:
- We understand the reluctance of oil and gas producers to deploy long-term growth capital due to demand uncertainties. But, we question closing a US refinery amid a strong return setting.
- We highlight recent support in NW Europe natural gas prices before forecasted cold weather sets in, and we flag weakness in US natural gas and USGC propane relative to USGC ethane WoW.
- US and Asia HDPE prices have increased relative to Asia-integrated naphtha costs, but both reflect a loss. We also flag multiple sector 4Q reports, such as at Methanex and LyondellBasell.
- LyondellBasell highlights new climate and circularity targets that include more aggressive GHG emission cuts – its Houston refinery shutdown is a sizable piece of the emission reduction target.
- We highlight US and China PMI postings, show the movements in US polymer prices and crude relative to its PMI, and we highlight recent food inflation estimates from FAO for January 2023.
See PDF below for all charts, tables and diagrams