The acetone settlement for May was concluded at $0.655 per pound. This is a decrease of $0.05125 per pound from April’s average of the split. Crude oil is now back close to pre-Iran/USA conflict levels. What does that mean for acetone?
The refinery grade propylene (RGP) market still has not seen a trade since the beginning of April. Polymer grade propylene (PGP) has had a freefall since the last report. In mid-April, PGP was trading near $0.50 per pound and now we are seeing trades around $0.35-0.37 per pound. All propane dehydrogenation (PDH) units are online, and propylene inventories are plentiful.
May acetone imports into the USA came in at 2,000 MT’s. Only one bulk parcel came in and that was from Japan. We expect June imports to come in a bit higher than May’s but still not significant volumes. Asian acetone prices have been bearish, but the arbitrage to America is not wide open. With domestic propylene falling, contract prices here are still below what Asia can offer for August/September arrival. Europe’s acetone supply has improved but is still not able to compete with domestic contract prices. With domestic acetone demand weak, we do not expect imports to be significant for the remainder of 2026.
Acetone prices in the USA have come off over the last month. However, availability is still not great with phenol demand muted. A very high benzene contract price ($4.91/gallon) for June does no favors in encouraging demand. Although July benzene will come down significantly, we don’t expect this to spur on phenol demand. All domestic phenol/acetone producers are operational as of today.
We predicted at least a drop of $0.03 per pound from April to May. For May to June, we will call for a decrease of at least $0.05 per pound amidst very weak propylene. We hope summer treats you well!