Styrene:Europe

摘要

The European styrene market continued spiralling lower this week on a combination of persistently good availability, contracting demand and deteriorating prices in Asia. Spot styrene barges were assessed at $1,574/mt FOB ARA, which represented a further decline of $36/mt week on week. Sources said upstream developments had little impact on the styrene market and the fact that feedstock benzene had been in free-fall, reaching multi-month lows, was not pushing styrene down, but rather kept producers margins healthy. Sources said the spread between styrene and benzene remained in healthy territory, incentivizing styrene producers to run harder, which aggravated the length. With benzene assessed at $1,164/mt, the spread was $410/ mt at Friday’s close.