Polypropylene:United States

摘要

US ABS supply and demand were stabilizing this week, with suppliers heard to be cutting production rates back slightly ahead of an expected seasonal slowdown. “We were somewhere over 90% capacity [industry wide] during the summer,” one manufacturer said this week. “We’ve shifted lower, though. We always have some seasonality — and people start ramping down as we get toward the end of the year.” Now, rates are closer to 87% industry-wide, the source said. There also was some feedstock relief expected in the coming week as butadiene contracts were expected to settle two cents lower at 92 cents/lb. It’s a relatively small drop in price, but is significant because it reflects loosening of supplies in the butadiene market, a source said. A lack of butadiene was a problem for some ABS producers, and resulted in tightening ABS supplies. The cost savings from butadiene, though, was offset by climbing styrene prices.