The Battle Within – North America Cost Advantage Incentivizes Production, Price Competition To Rise

Daily Chemical Reaction

The Battle Within – North America Cost Advantage Incentivizes Production, Price Competition To Rise

Key Points:

• European chemical producer cutbacks will unlikely offset oversupplied Asian markets to support prices into 2023, limiting US cost benefits and forcing a battle from within.
• We flag plant closures at Trinseo in Europe and Mitsubishi in the UK due to high gas costs and weak demand and discuss raw material margins sending mixed signals.
• We highlight the downward move in US polyethylene spot values relative to the November contract and discuss how Shell product placement will disrupt the market.
• We discuss why it is easier for a chemical company like LyondellBasell to tackle Scope 3 emissions than an oil and gas company and flag a few clean project developments.
• Recent weakness in the USD relative to the Euro (& other currencies) pose headwinds for product imports, and we note a few US housing market indicators worth noticing.

See PDF below for all charts, tables and diagrams