Growth seen for world petrochemicals despite high feedstock prices

摘要

Until recently, the price of natural gas had become very affordable, enabling many producers to enjoy profits that had not been seen in the petrochemicals industry for a number of years. With increased natural gas prices, as well as increases for feedstocks such as aromatics, propylene, butadiene and others, producers are being forced to increase future contract prices. This creates uncertainty regarding the amount of available capital dollars for the remaining quarters of 2003.