VINACHEM

The ICIS Northwest Europe ammonia-to-hydrogen assessment posted a weekly increase for the sixth straight week in late August, boosted by a continuing rally in the ammonia market, while other forms of hydrogen production fell back.

The ammonia-to-hydrogen assessment rose by €0.26/kg week on week to stand at €4.37/kg, the highest assessment for the contract since the middle of May and close to €0.50/kg up on the multi-year low seen as recently as mid-July.

Low carbon hydrogen produced via steam methane reforming (SMR) with carbon capture and storage (CCS) attached came under pressure from a steep drop on the European natural gas hubs during week 34, losing €0.26/kg on a weekly basis to come in at €3.08/kg.

Baseload electrolysis also saw a drop in its valuation, but to a lesser extent than low carbon hydrogen, down €0.20/kg at €6.17/kg as the losses on the gas hubs were more pronounced than on the European gas hubs.

AMMONIA MARKET

The global ammonia market continued to see support for pricing with deals having been done at higher levels than the market had seen in recent months.

Business from both Algerian and Saudi Arabia was agreed this week and this market is set to have a knock-on effect onto other global deals.

Nonetheless, demand in Asia remains slack from the chemicals sector and Europe is said to have a wait-and-see stance following the recent jump caused by industrial action in Australia.

GAS MARKET

The ICIS Dutch TTF September ’23 contract saw larger price swings than has been seen over the past few months as the market reacted to news coming out of Australia over industrial action affecting LNG production.

The TTF front-month was seen above the €40/MWh mark early in the week but was down below €32/MWh in early 25 August exchanges before picking up some steam to recover to €34/MWh by late morning.

Although gas storage injections have slowed in August, stocks remain comfortably above the levels seen last year, standing at 92.8% full on 24 August against the 78.6% from the same time in 2022, data from ICIS showed.