Naphtha costs expected to remain firm until Sept

摘要

Naphtha costs were expected to remain firm until at least September due to a possible rise in demand, reduced supply and a fairly bullish outlook for crude, naphtha traders told ACN last week. However, an ethylene trader pointed out that if last week's 'unacceptable' delta between naphtha and ethylene prices did not change and PE prices did not recover significantly, enabling the high naphtha costs to the passed on, cracker operators could be forced into operating-rate cuts. These cuts might be sufficient to lower naphtha, argued the trader.