US petchem producers look to brighter tomorrow

After being battered by unprecedented weather events and demand loss over the past year, the industry is hoping for much-needed market stability

The US petrochemicals sector has managed to weather the storm—both figuratively and literally—with operators outlasting a global health pandemic, an overactive hurricane season and more recently an Arctic blast that ripped through the heartland of Texas’ energy sector.  Margins across the downstream sector are also rapidly recovering as economic lockdowns in the developed world wind down. And robust global capacity for feedstocks provision is helping offset lost capacity from the US Gulf Coast. Indicative cracker margins in both the US and Europe have doubled between Q2 last year and the first half of 2021. 70pc – Ethylene price jump in March But US margins may have already peaked, w