The UK, Norway and Finland Benefit from Rising Sweden’s Ethylene Imports

IndexBox has just published a new report: 'Sweden - Ethylene - Market Analysis, Forecast, Size, Trends And Insights'. Here is a summary of the report's key findings.

Sweden is rapidly ramping up ethylene imports. In the first half of 2021, Sweden purchased 100K tonnes of ethylene. Last year, imports spiked from $125M to $388M, or from 116K tonnes to 525K tonnes in physical terms. The UK, Norway and Finland supply 80% of Sweden's ethylene imports. In 2020, the UK's exports rose fourfold, while Norway's and Finland's recorded an eightfold increase. The average ethylene import price dropped by -31.8% y-o-y to $739 per tonne.

Ethylene Imports into Sweden

In the first half of 2021, Sweden imported 100K tonnes of ethylene. Over the last year, imports soared from 116K tonnes to 525K tonnes. In value terms, ethylene imports surged from $125M in 2019 to $388M (IndexBox estimates) in 2020.

In 2020, the UK (295K tonnes) constituted the largest ethylene supplier to Sweden, with a 56% share of total imports. Moreover, ethylene imports from the UK exceeded the figures recorded by the second-largest supplier, Norway (88K tonnes), threefold. Finland (36K tonnes) ranked third in terms of total ethylene imports with a 6.8% share.

Over the last year, imports from the UK grew fourfold in physical terms. Purchases from Norway and Finland increased by eight times, while France expanded exports to Sweden threefold.

In value terms, the UK ($227M) constituted the largest supplier of ethylene to Sweden, comprising 59% of total imports. The second position in this ranking was occupied by Norway ($62M), with a 16% share of total imports. It was followed by Finland, with a 7.2% share.

In 2020, the average ethylene import price amounted to $739 per tonne, declining by -31.8% against the previous year. Average prices varied noticeably amongst the major supplying countries. In 2020, the countries with the highest prices were the Netherlands ($776 per tonne) and Finland ($774 per tonne), while the price for Portugal ($628 per tonne) and France ($641 per tonne) were amongst the lowest. In 2020, the most notable rate of growth in terms of prices was attained by Portugal, while the prices of the other significant suppliers experienced a decline.

Source: IndexBox Platform