The European spot methanol price has risen to a nearly four-month high this week as a number of recent and ongoing plant outages have triggered a flurry of short-covering activity, market sources said.
The methanol price in Rotterdam was assessed at Eur310/mt ($401/mt) FOB Thursday, up 4.7% since the start of the month and the highest level since May 31, according to Platts data.
Prices have jumped following a number of planned and unplanned production outages in Eurasia, North Africa and Central America during the months of September and October, according to sources.
Meanwhile, underlying demand for methanol on contractual offtake agreements has remained stable in most European regions in the same period, the sources added.
The methanol spot price assessed in Rotterdam is currently trading almost Eur20/mt higher than the estimated average net contract price for the fourth quarter, indicating supply tightness.
Mid-sized methanol buyers in Europe are entitled to a discount of around 15% over the quarterly contract price in the region, which was agreed at Eur340/mt FOB Rdam for the current quarter, according to estimates from industry participants. But the discount for larger consumers can approach 20%.
In Europe, methanol is primarily used for the production of formaldehyde, methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) and acetic acid.
