An initial NWE contract for April-delivered butadiene was fully settled Tuesday at Eur1,415/mt FD NWE ($1,821/mt FD), following confirmation from four producers and two consumers involved in the negotiations.
A spokesman for SABIC Europe confirmed that the company had agreed the figure with its customers for April-delivered material, without adding further details.
A second producer, LyondellBasell, also confirmed agreeing the same figure with its Europe-based customers, while spokesmen for Ineos and Total also confirmed that they had agreed to an April rollover with their regular contract customers.
Meanwhile, one of the large consumers, Lanxess, reported agreeing the same figure with some of its suppliers, without adding further details.
A second consumer, Styron, also confirmed agreeing the same price with two producers.
Other parties involved were not immediately available for confirmation.
The market was seen in balance towards the end of March as a number of plant shutdowns in the region and lower C4 yields as the result of increased LPG cracking were offset by weak derivative demand and a lack of export opportunities, meaning that less spot material was leaving the region than in previous months.
Spot NWE butadiene was assessed at Eur1,430-1,440/mt FD NWE Monday.
Source: platts.com
