Butadiene - C4s Asia Transcript
The butadiene (BD) market report is a weekly report. It tracks all the spot trades in Asia. We gather this information by speaking to all the major players in the market: including producers, consumers, traders and distributors.
BD is used by the downstream synthetic rubber producers including styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) and polybutadiene rubber (PBR) producers.
It is traded on a spot basis in northeast Asia and southeast Asia. The spot transactions are captured every week. They are verified, they are checked and analysed and discussed in detail in the report. The information includes plant shut-downs, turnarounds, outages an well as new plant startups.
This information is very important because it impacts on supply. And supply is a major issue in determining the price of BD.
Of course, the downstream SBR and PBR producers are also major consumers of BD and we also track all the events that are happening in the downstream SBR and PBR markets including their plant start ups and shut downs.
As it is supply and demand are the major determining factors in the BD market.
The BD report is an essential report because the spot numbers are used in the monthly contract negotiations and settlements. The major BD producers and consumers refer to the ICIS spot numbers when they discuss and settle their monthly contracts.
The major producers and major consumers need the report. The information that is captured on a weekly basis is verified, checked and analysed thoroughly. All this information goes into helping the decision makers settle their monthly contracts.