Domestic prices of polypropylene (PP) in Europe fell during the week ending May 12, ICIS reports.

In the last three weeks, PP prices in Europe have been growing.

ICIS notes that the profitability of polypropylene production based on naphtha in the region decreased by 4.8%, as raw material costs increased by 3.2%. At the same time, the profitability of PP based on propane dehydrogenation (PDH) decreased by 6.3%, as the cost of raw materials increased by 7.5%.

Prices for European polypropylene fell to EUR13 60 per tonne compared to EUR1 375 per tonne in the previous week.

Meanwhile, the euro fell by 0.6% against the US dollar. When using naphtha raw materials in US dollars, a depreciation of the euro usually reduces the profitability of production, while the strengthening of the euro has a positive effect on it.

According to the Price Review of ICIS-MRC, last week the prices of PP in Russia stopped to decline, most of the producers kept the price level of the previous week. Prior to this, two weeks in a row, there was a dynamic decline in PP-homo prices.