Asia steam crackers may
keep operations low in May Asia butadiene-naphtha
spread above breakeven



Despite the thin price
discussion, Asian butadiene was still assessed unchanged on April 26th. Market participants maintained a wait-and-see attitude and
closely monitored steam cracker operations starting in May. According to market sources, operations could remain low in
May because of the bearish outlook on the Asian ethylene markets. Market participants expected steam cracker operations would
increase starting in May, as they had predicted earlier. The CFR Northeast Asia ethylene prices remained stable at
$1,280-1,300/mt. The price spread between
ethylene/naphtha has increased to $415-435/mt due to recent weakness in
upstream naphtha. This is well above the $300-$350 breakeven spread. However,
the bearish outlook for ethylene will likely keep steam cracker operations low. The spread in price between naphtha and butadiene was $510-520/mt...