PROPYLENE

Propylene prices have risen to US$1220/MT in Asia in the week of January 7, 2008, mainly driven by restricted availability due to the outage at Mitsubishi Chemical's No. 2 naphtha cracker with 260,000 tpa propylene capacity. This will keep prices on the rise until February. FOB Korea offers have risen to US$1230/MT levels on tight supply situation. In the SE Asian region, CFR prices spiked on strong demand from end-users. Prices will continue to be north bound in the next few weeks of January, probably until February.