Europe spot styrene holds steady despite rumoured outage

LONDON (ICIS)–Despite news of a production outage, there has so far been no significant upward impact on European styrene spot numbers, sources said on Tuesday.

The week opened with several players talking about one producer facing production problems on styrene at their site.

“There is a little more interest,” said one industry player. “More people are looking to buy styrene.”

May bids and offers moved up to $1,100-1,120/tonne, but this morning the market had eased off slightly. Bids were at $1,085-1,090/tonne, while offers were largely unchanged at $1,115-1,120/tonne.

“The numbers are slightly higher than last week, but not dramatically so,” said one trader this morning. “[It is] hardly indicative of a serious problem.”

The European market is expected to see lower pricing into June with the arrival of US imports and the current production turnarounds drawing to a close.

Asian spot numbers have fallen to around the $1,000/tonne FOB (free on board) Korea mark, adding further downward pressure on global pricing.

However, the upward blip on pricing this week shows that Europe still remains a fragile market, at least when it comes to prompt availability and short term issues.

“Nobody is building inventory now ahead of June and July, when prices are expected to come down,” said one producer. “There isn’t a lot of prompt spot material available.”