Dow Restarted a Cracker and Arkema Sold Less Acrylic
Yesterday BASF told us European demand came back. This morning Arkema printed group volumes down 1.8% and acrylic monomer volumes down 9.7%, while Dow spent the quarter firing an idled Dutch cracker back up. Everything that moved this week, plus what lands in the next 36 hours.
If you read yesterday's brief, you have a thesis sitting in your inbox that says European chemical demand came back in the second quarter.
Arkema published its quarter at eleven this morning, Paris time, and it is the first independent test of that thesis.
"Did the demand actually arrive, or did the price?"
Group sales came in at €2,428 million on organic growth of 3.2%. The composition is the whole item: prices up 5.1%, volumes down 1.8%.
BASF booked the same quarter at +11.5% on price and +7.3% on volume.
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