The settlement for US June contract prices for chemical-grade propylene and for polymer-grade propylene called for 0.5 cent hike at 31.5 cents/lb and 33 cents/lb, respectively, sources said Thursday.
The settlements were at par with the latest nomination of a 0.5 cent/lb increase and set contracts to their highest levels since the August settlements of the same levels.
The increase follows higher refinery-grade prices, which started the month at 19 cents/lb and reached 21.75 cents/lb on June 16 amid refinery outages and higher crude. Additionally, unplanned outage at Flint Hills Resources' propane dehydrogenation unit took out the plant in early June.
The two-week outage at the 545,000 mt/year on-purpose propylene plant was completed Sunday, sources said. Lastly, Dow Chemical's PDH plant was down until Tuesday, following planned maintenance, which started on May 18. The plant started operations in December and was successfully commissioned in early March. In late March, Dow started planned maintenance that was completed by May 6 and involved repairs to an exchanger.
US polymer-grade propylene was assessed Thursday at 31.5-32 cents/lb FD USG, steady day on day for both June and July deliveries. RGP was assessed at 20.75-21.25 cents/lb delivered.
