Abstract
By the end of the year, cash cost economics will be setting ethylene prices. And this phenomenon will continue at least through 1993. This means U.S. ethylene producers will face even greater pressure to minimize production costs. It also means that they will have to be more selective in choosing their feedstock. That's the message that Thomas H. McGreevey brought to the recent meeting of the Chemical Management & Resources Association (CMRA) meeting in Philadelphia. McGreevey, director of CPI Consulting Associates, White Plains, N.Y., unloaded a few surprises at CMRA's review and forecast meeting. For instance, light naphtha and gas oil will be more competitive than ethane as an ethylene feedstock, says McGreevey. In fact, he expects ethane to be the least competitive of all possible feedstocks. For ethylene producers, oscillating feedstock economics is nothing new. They have been living with it for decades. Until the 1960s, the U.S. olefins industry was built on an ...
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