China's Panjin Ethylene Industry Corp. raised its butadiene offers by Yuan 300($48)/mt, or about 3%, to Yuan 11,310/mt ex-tank, effective Monday, local end-users said.
This is PEIC's first price hike after slashing prices on five occasions last month -- from Yuan 13,010/mt on November 1 to Yuan 11,010/mt on November 28.
Meanwhile, state-run Sinopec is currently offering butadiene at Yuan 11,800/mt ex-works, unchanged since November 29, when it cut prices by Yuan 1,200/mt.
A synthetic rubber producer said domestic butadiene supply was a bit tight currently, noting that PEIC was operating its 120,000 mt/year butadiene extraction unit at Liaoning at a reduced rate of about 75%.
He added that another local producer, Shanghai Secco Petrochemical, was operating its naphtha-fed steam cracker and associated butadiene extraction unit at about 65% of capacity.
The cracker is able to produce 1.1 million mt/year of ethylene and 500,000 mt/year of propylene, while the extraction unit is able to produce 90,000 mt/year of butadiene.
PEIC is a subsidiary of the Liaoning Huajin Chemical Industry Group while Shanghai Secco is a joint venture comprising BP East China Investment (50%), China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. or Sinopec Corp. (30%) and Shanghai Petrochemical Co. (20%).
