Europe styrene up $30/t on firm benzene, demand
29 January 2008 16:11 [Source: ICIS news]
LONDON (ICIS news)--Styrene spot prices were firming by around $30/tonne (€20/tonne) in Europe on the back of rising benzene values and industry buying interest, sources said on Tuesday.
“Industry is interested,” one active trader said, while another reported that "every major" was in the market looking to buy.
Styrene spot deals for March were recorded at $1,410/tonne (€959/tonne) FOB (free on board) Rotterdam and $1,415/tonne FOB Rotterdam.
At 14:30 GMT, February and March styrene were valued at $1,410-1,420/tonne FOB (free on board) Rotterdam by global chemical market intelligence service ICIS pricing, up $30/tonne on the previous day's close.
Benzene spot prices were also supported by reports of industry buying because of production issues. February benzene was valued at $1,090-1,100/tonne, a week-on-week increase of $65-70/tonne.
As well as BASF’s ongoing production problems at its Antwerp facility, market talk suggested that Total Petrochemicals was experiencing styrene production problems because of ethylene-related cracker issues.
Fina Antwerp Olefins NC2 cracker had gone down unplanned last week, according to market sources. The outage was expected to last a few more days, they said.
The cracker is a joint venture of Total Petrochemicals and ExxonMobil Chemicals and has a nameplate capacity of 560,000 tonnes/year.
Official confirmation of the issue was not available from the JV.
Markets sources also said that INEOS Olefins was experiencing some production issues on benzene at its 295,000 tonne/year facility in Grangemouth in Scotland. This, however, could not be confirmed by the producer.
By: Julia Meehan
+44 20 8652 3214
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