Europe styrene strong, talked above $1,400/tonne

28 January 2008 16:45  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--Styrene values were talked in excess of $1,400/tonne (€952/tonne) on Monday, on a scarcity of offers, ongoing strong demand and feedstock benzene prices, market participants said.

Rumours of production issues at two major sites in Europe alongside an outage at BASF’s styrene facility at Antwerp, Belgium, added to the general upwards sentiment, sources said.

Despite intraday losses of $1/bbl-plus on crude oil, benzene and styrene values continued to climb.

At 15:30 GMT, The former was valued at $1,070-1,080/tonne CIF (cost, insurance and freight) ARA (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp) and the latter at $1,385-1,400/tonne FOB (free on board) Rotterdam for February by global chemical market intelligence service ICIS pricing, before each dropping $10 by 16:00 GMT.

“It is not easy to find February or March offers for styrene,” said one trader.

“It should be $1,400/tonne on the offer for both months [February and March]. Benzene numbers are up this afternoon, and styrene demand is steady. All together, these give conditions for numbers to move up,” the source added.

Market talk was that industry buyers in the styrene market were prepared to pay higher prices, and hence were able to maintain these values.

A deal was reported, although unconfirmed, at $1,380/tonne FOB Rotterdam for February from earlier in the day.

Benzene was driven by an upturn in demand, with trade buying from industry at $1,055/tonne CIF ARA, $1,056/tonne CIF ARA and $1,057/tonne CIF ARA in early trading.

Later deals were rumoured at $1,060/tonne CIF ARA and $1,065/tonne CIF ARA, although these could not be confirmed at the time of writing.

Earlier in the day, monthly contract settlers for both products had said that with spot numbers relatively stable from early January, it was likely that February contracts for both products would be settled close to the levels seen the previous month.

Market volatility, however, did not make this a certainty

“I thought prices would come down on crude, but they came up over the last few days," a major seller said.

“The market has been more or less flat, but it is too early to say. It’s three more days to go [before contracts will be settled]. A lot can happen in that much time.”

($1 = €0.68)

By: Peter Salisbury
+44 20 8652 3214

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