Styrene: Asia

摘要

Asian styrene monomer fell $43.50/mt week on week to $1,615/mt FOB Korea and by $44.50/mt to $1,633/mt CFR China Friday after suffering steep losses early in the week amid bearish sentiment and similar falls in other aromatics. Day on day, the benchmarks slipped $2/mt, despite losses in upstream markets. Most notably, benzene plummeted $39/mt day on day to $1,324/mt FOB Korea, and was down $61/mt week on week, while ethylene slipped $5/mt from Thursday to $1,335/mt CFR Northeast Asia, and was down $65/mt from last Friday. An April loading SM cargo was heard sold Friday by a South Korean refiner to a Japanese trading house at $1,640/mt CFR China for Asia origin excluding Middle East and Taiwan origin. Platts assesses based on open origin and the deal was discounted by $7/ mt according to market estimates of the price difference between open origin and Asian origin only.