Insight
The European PTA market: Five key facts on pricing dynamics
*Please note that this report only includes an Excel data file if this is indicated in "What's included" below
Report summary
• Significant spikes in energy and other production costs in Europe (such as acetic acid) negatively impacted PTA producers’ margins during 2021. • In H2 2021, production issues in Europe and maintenance turnarounds kept domestic PTA supply very tight at a time of consistently strong demand and critically low inventories caused by the effects of the pandemic. • Throughout 2021, the European PTA market was impacted by high freight rates from Asia into Europe. • Despite initial opposition to surcharges, the challenging market conditions supported these initiatives and surcharges were finally implemented starting in November 2021. • The PTA-PX spread in Europe was further increased at the beginning of 2022. • Spreads are now revised more frequently because of the high uncertainty levels. • Import parity prices recently started gaining competitiveness, which will increase pressure on European prices, limiting PTA-PX spreads moving forward.
Table of contents
- Executive summary
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Five key facts
- Significant spikes in energy prices and other production costs in Europe
- Acetic acid costs also rising in Europe
- Tight PTA market in Europe
- European PTA market shielded by historically high freight rates from Asia
- Regional PTA producers proposed surcharges to address cost increases; surcharges were implemented by November 2021.
- Outlook
Tables and charts
This report includes the following images and tables:
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Europe’s energy crisisAcetic acid pricesEuropean PTA supply gap in H2 2021
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Illustrative Asian freight from ShanghaiThe shipping crisisPTA-0.67 Paraxylene Spreads, EuropeEuropean PTA versus Asia imports
What's included
This report contains:
