LONDON (ICIS)—Supply down the oxo-alcohols value chain has improved as OQ Chemicals has restarted production and some Asian imports are available.

Across markets, demand continues to be subdued by economic pressures and there has been little seasonal improvement.

Oxo-alcohols market editor Nicole Simpson speaks to butyl acetate (butac) editor Marion Boakye, acrylate esters editor, Mathew Jolin Beech, and propylene glycol ethers editor, Cameron Birch, about the current conditions in these markets and expectations for the near future.

SEOUL (ICIS)--In this podcast, ICIS markets editor Josh Quah shares an update on the ethylene (C2) market in Asia based on discussions during the Asia Petrochemical Industry Conference (APIC) 2024.

• S Korea Jun cracker run rates may see some downward adjustment, though unlikely to be significant
• Jul arrival demand uncertain amid turnarounds, some recovering margins
• C2 export allocations to hinge on polymer profitability

APIC 2024 is being held in Seoul, South Korea, from 30-31 May.

The soda ash market narrative reminds one of Dickens' A tale of two cities: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times [...]we had everything before us, we had nothing before us."

From the vertiginous highs of the post-pandemic boom to the slumbers brought in by high borrowing costs, soda ash players are navigating rougher seas with lows elongated compared to typical cyclical troughs and highs that had exhausted anyone involved in selling the molecule for over two years. Likewise, the promises of a boom in consumption via the lithium carbonate to support lithium ion battery-run electric vehicles is also tempered by the idea that global oversupply could through the molecule back into the depressed mode and low margin era it has known for decades.

Demand from the from the all-important flat glass applications servicing the construction and auto industries have stabilised after a year-long slow decline and is likely to remain slower in H2.

Regionalism is at all time highs. And Supply from China is once again in the line of mire.

ICIS soda ash editors Anne-Sophie Briant-Vaghela from Europe, Helen Lee from Asia, and Bill Bowen from the US talk about the changing market conditions as China switches from net exporter to net importer in Q1-Q2.