Europe’s Chemicals Sector Gets a Brief Reprieve

The battered European chemicals industry has just closed a weak but still better-than-expected first quarter as the supply shock from the Middle East hit Asian petrochemical makers amid dried-up naphtha and other feedstock supplies from the Persian Gulf. Asia’s petrochemicals sector is highly dependent on naphtha, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), and methanol from the Persian Gulf. Across Asia, shortages of naphtha and other key petrochemicals feedstocks due to the Iran war have already forced petrochemicals firms to…