INEOS NOVA closes Europe PS order book for Nov

20 November 2007 11:31  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--INEOS NOVA has closed its European polystyrene (PS) order book for November, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.

 

“Demand is much stronger than anticipated and we have had maintenance outages at two of our polystyrene plants in October,” said polystyrene business director Pierre Minguet.

 

“This has left us with no option but to decline further orders for polystyrene for November delivery,” he added. 

 

PS prices have slipped in November due to a fall in styrene but producers were still attempting to improve margins as the supply/demand balance was seen to be in their favour.

 

“We did not expand the margin when the styrene contract price was easing off, despite the fact that the supply-demand balance is tight overall,” Minguet added.

 

Dow announced a €50/tonne ($74/tonne) hike for PS in Europe for December, and INEOS NOVA made it clear that it was not satisfied with current margins.

 

However, buyers were still looking to reduce their November PS further this week. “We aim to reach a €30/tonne reduction from October,” said one large buyer.

 

Lower expectations were based on the reduction in November styrene contracts, which were settled at €980-1,036/tonne FD (free delivered) NWE (northwest Europe) barge, down about €24-25/tonne from the October contract range.

 

The European PS industry has shown significant signs of improvement since up to 13% of installed capacity was taken out, mostly during 2006.

 

General purpose PS spot prices were trading in the high €1,100s/tonne FD (free delivered) NWE (northwest Europe) mid-November range, according to global chemical market intelligence service ICIS pricing.

 

($1 = €0.68)

By: Linda Naylor
+44 20 8652 3214

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