US PS price rollover expected for May

HOUSTON (ICIS)–A price rollover from April to May is still largely expected in the US polystyrene (PS) market, but market participants said on Friday that they were unable to confirm settled pricing details until early May.

PS contracts are always settled after the feedstock benzene contract settles, and that did not happen until Friday afternoon. The US May benzene contract settled down by 9-11 cents/gal from the previous month.

The expected May price rollover follows April price increases of 5 cents/lb, which were successfully pushed through by producers. At the end of March the three major North American PS producers separately announced price increases of 5-6 cents/lb effective 1 April. The producer that announced the price increase at 6 cents/lb later dropped it to 5 cents/lb.

PS demand is heard to be at expected levels, but is not quite as strong as at the end of Q1/beginning of April. That timeframe is seen as one of the peak demand periods for pellets, as manufacturers fill up inventories to prepare for the summer season.

The second peak demand period is at the end of Q3/early Q4 as buyers prepare for the holiday season.

Stronger Asian PS prices have narrowed the gap between imported Asian PS and domestic material, an importer said.

North American PS producers include Americas Styrenics, Group Idesa, INEOS Styrolution, Resirene and Total Petrochemicals USA.