EU Seeks US Propylene Imports Amid Supply Shortages

The EU is looking at importing propylene from the US amid supply shortages in Europe resulting from outages in the region, market sources said Friday.

US prices were assessed at 37 cents/gal ($815/mt FD) Thursday, compared with Eur831.50/mt ($936.80/mt) FD Northwest Europe. Freight was pegged around $90-100/mt.

Shortages of supply due to issues at both crackers and refineries in Europe has led the EU to look to the west, sources said. Europe already booked two cargoes from the US at the end of May, the sources added. One of them was booked by Total, a shipping source said.

Total's Feyzin refinery and cracker started the process of restarting following a three-week strike, the company said on May 24. While it was unclear whether the Antwerp cracker in Belgium has now restarted following a period of planned maintenance.

Total wasn't immediately available to comment on the status of the Feyzin and Antwerp plants Friday.

Meanwhile, repairs to a column affected by a fire on May 17 at Germany's Total Leuna refinery are expected to extend over the month of June, the company said Thursday.

In addition, Sabic's Geleen 4 cracker in the Netherlands, which was expected to restart in May, is now set to restart next week, the company said earlier this week.

In the first three months of the year, the EU has imported 110,204 mt of propylene, out of which US imports were nil.

The main importers to Europe were Russia, Serbia and Brazil, according to Eurostat data.