Butadiene prices plunge nearly 40% in Europe

London – Butadiene prices continued on a sharply downward track during the trading week ended 9 Dec, amid abundant supply and sluggish demand from downstream sectors. (Click on table to enlarge)

According to the latest ChemAnalyst data, collected for ERJ, butadiene FD Hamburg prices settled at $575 per tonne during the week, down 38% week-on-week.

The trend is in-line with forecasts reported by ERJ, projecting subdued pricing for butadiene over the coming years, due to a spate of new capacity additions and declining growth in demand.

For the latest trading week, ChemAnalyst also reported week-on -week declines for key synthetic rubber materials* with the exception of nitrile rubber which remained flat for a second consecutive week.

*Synthetic rubber prices compiled exclusively for ERJ:
EPDM medium diene FOB Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Halobutyl rubber BIIS CFR, Hamburg, Germany
Styrene butadiene rubber 1502 FD Wuppertal, Germany
Nitrile butadiene rubber 18-40% CFR, Hamburg, Germany
Polybutadiene rubber FOB, Hamburg, Germany.
Fluoroelastomers MV (25-61) FD Hamburg
Butadiene FD Hamburg