The Ethoxylate Price Remains Boosted by Volatile Feedstock Market

Houston, USA: Globally, the Ethoxylates market continued to demonstrate perpetual bullishness over the last three weeks on the back of soaring feedstock value and tightened supplies that followed.

ChemAnalysts revealed that this uphill pricing was the aftermath of the Indonesian Palm Oil export ban that was announced towards the month end of April. Since then, all the importing countries have turned to Malaysia, the second-largest Palm oil producer in the world.

Our sources in Southeast Asia confirmed that the palm oil markets continued on a bullish note as Indonesia, the top producer, recently imposed export restrictions on palm oil ahead of tight supplies in the country’s domestic market.

Also, the supply chain disruptions caused by the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which pushed the oil and fat industry, continued in the international market, mainly affecting the imports.

The demand fundamentals remained firm from the downstream surfactant industry, which also affected the current overseas market outlooks. Conclusively, according to the ChemAnalyst Database, the majorly traded Ethoxylates price inclined more than 1.6 percent in the United States and Germany during the first week of May. 

Regarding the market sentiments in Europe, Ethoxylates remain affected by the intensifying conflict between Russia and Ukraine. The consumer buying interest has not been strong, and the buyers are very slow to commit to higher offers.

However, the increased production costs and Palm oil selling at a premium value have caught the players off guard, prompting a frequent price rise.

Moving on to the United States, Ethoxylate futures continued in an upward price trajectory on the back of soaring feedstock. The market witnessed strong demand sentiments across the region.

Additionally, because of worldwide shipping logistical difficulties, lead times from Southeast Asia are still long - up to four to five months which kept the players under pressure.

As per ChemAnalyst, “the price of Ethoxylates is expected to stay buoyant in the coming weeks across the United States and Germany. The tight supplies from Southeast Asia and the insufficient product volumes may further increase the global downstream demand. Furthermore, slower demand in China due to ongoing coronavirus-related lockdowns in the near term may alleviate some of these problems.”