Asian styrenics offers lower amid poor demand

26 January 2007 03:43  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--Offers of styrenic plastics were reduced this week as demand remained lacklustre, suppliers and traders said on Friday.

Traders expected demand to taper off further with the approach of the Chinese New Year holidays in the second half of February. Orders for finished products were limited with some improvement expected only in March-April, moulders said.

It would probably be in May or June before a significant pickup in demand can be seen for plastics, traders said. The traditional Chinese manufacturing season for exports typically last from May to September each year.

Buyers remained in a wait-and-see stance, in anticipation of lower prices on the one hand and having little need for large purchases on the other.

Offers of prompt polystyrene (PS) cargoes declined some $40/tonne to $1,380-1,400/tonne CFR (cost & freight) Hong Kong and China for the general-purpose grade.

Offers of the high impact types were pegged at $1,420-1,440/tonne CFR Hong Kong and China, down by a similar margin. Sellers said trades were thin despite these lower offers.

Offers of packaging expandable PS (EPS) were slashed by $30-50/tonne this week to $1,450/tonne CFR China. Persistently poor demand coupled with the short shelf life of EPS resins caused sellers to reduce prices in order to clear inventories.

Quotations for acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) parcels declined as well to $1,570-1,630/tonne CFR China this week, down from $1,610-1,650/tonne CFR China last week.

The decline in feedstock styrene monomer (SM) and butadiene (BD) values last week prompted sellers to reduce offers in a bid to stimulate demand.

However, their efforts had largely been unsuccessful.

By: Clive Ong
+65 6780 4359

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