Supply Constraint Hits the European Acrylonitrile Prices
- 07-Mar-2023 12:45 PM
- Journalist: Stella Fernandes
As per the sources, Acrylonitrile prices have rebound in Europe amid the limited availability of its supplies during February 2023. Previously, Acrylonitrile prices decreased consistently during the past couple of months.
Recently, the region's top Acrylonitrile manufacturer in Germany, INEOS Nitrile, with a production capacity of 190,000 TPA, halted its production in February 2023. Because of this, the Acrylonitrile prices stagnated during the final week of February. The Acrylonitrile prices increased by almost 7.5% during the month, and in Germany and the Netherlands, the prices settled at USD 1555/MT and USD 1503/MT, respectively, as per the data sources.
The spike in Europe's Naphtha prices because of sanctions on Russian products from February 5, 2023, and increased imports of upstream Crude oil from the USA raised the feedstock Propylene prices amid tight supplies.
On the contrary, because of mild weather than anticipated, Natural gas costs declined significantly amid surplus LNG supplies. Consequently, feedstock Ammonia costs contracted noticeably along with the production's input costs.
From March 2023 onwards, BASF is closing its Ammonia production facility with a production capacity of 880,000 TPA at the Ludwigshafen site in Germany. According to the reports, BASF is closing several plants at the Ludwigshafen site in Germany to control the production costs amid the economic backdrop of the previous quarter. The company went under loss amid increased costs of production due to high input costs on the back of limited availability of Natural Gas and Crude oil supplies from Russia due to sanctions imposed by Europe.
As per the assessment, "Acrylonitrile prices will likely remain firm during March 2023 due to anticipated increase in demand from the rubber and elastomer producers. Furthermore, the available Acrylonitrile supplies will deplete with time, and production rates will be affected amid limited inventory levels of feedstock Propylene in the European region."
