U.S. And Northeast Asia Plastic Prices Fell Sharply, IPEX Fell 6% in December

According to ICIS website news on January 10, the ICIS Petrochemical Index (IPEX) fell 6.2% month-on-month in December, indicating that prices in major petrochemical and plastics markets around the world fell, especially in Northeast Asia and the United States.

Northeast Asia saw the biggest decline, with commodities such as butadiene down as much as 17% month-on-month, and every petrochemical company in the region saw prices fall in December.

The U.S. Gulf region also fell sharply, although exceptions such as paraxylene and benzene rose slightly. Similar to Northeast Asia, butadiene saw the largest drop of 19%.

Northwest Europe saw the mildest decline, down just 1.6% month-on-month. Products such as butadiene and toluene drove the decline, which fell 21% in December. Polystyrene was the biggest gainer, rising 4.3%.

The global IPEX index rose 20% year-on-year.

The monthly IPEX index reflects the three main producing and consuming regions, as well as the global petrochemical and plastics markets.