London (Platts)--27Nov2012/614 am EST/1114 GMT

German chemical import prices softened in October by 0.2% from a four-month high in September, responding to declining energy and petroleum product costs, data from federal statistics office Destatis showed Tuesday.

Compared with the previous year, free-at-the-German border prices for chemicals were 0.7% higher. In 2011, average annual inflation had come close to 11%.

Eurozone sellers cut their chemicals prices by 0.3% month-on-month, whereas purchase costs from outside the eurozone edged up 0.2%.

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The petroleum products index declined 2.0%, including a 1.9% fall in the light oils segment that covers light naphtha, while overall energy import costs eased for the second month by a further 1%.

Base chemicals import prices also weakened 0.2% month-on-month, including a 2.1% slide for inorganic base chemicals, a 0.5% decrease for plastics in primary forms and a 0.6% increase for organic base chemicals.

Within the primary plastics sub-group, polymers of ethylene prices were 3.1% lower than a month ago and polymers of styrene prices receded 0.8%.

--Inge Erhard, newsdesk@platts.com --Edited by James Leech, james_leech@platts.com

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