Shell Moerdijk steam cracker restarts Traders watch US export market as trade to Asia rises



European ethylene market was largely quiet in the week to April 22, as
buyers were happy to wait for May, while supply increased following the April
14 restart of Shell Moerdijk steam crackered. Early April saw tighter supply due to outages at Shell’s
910,000 mt/year Moerdijk steam crackered, Naphtachimie’s 740,000mt/year Lavera
Steam cracker, and planned maintenance at other steam Crackers, including Total
Energies 250,000mt/year Feyzin Steam cracker. Sources claimed that production outages were partially
offset by downstream maintenance and higher steam cracker production rates after run rates were lowered in March due to poor economic conditions. Consumers spoke of the difficulties in passing on current
prices, with the European contract price at an all-time high. Due to the extremely high...