Americas Styrenics seeks US Aug PS price hikes

HOUSTON (ICIS)–US polystyrene (PS) producer Americas Styrenics has nominated a 2 cent/lb ($44/tonne) increase in the transaction price for all grades of PS that it makes, the company said on Monday.

The price increase is effective 1 August and supersedes all other previously announced price changes, the release said.

Some market participants were surprised by the news of the price increase. July is not even finished negotiating, one source said.

US prices for July have yet to settle, as producers separately put forward price decreases ranging from 3-6 cents/lb, depending on grade, market sources said. 

One distributor said that the price increase was interesting, and that it about the same price increase it was seeing for imports that are arriving in August.

ICIS-assessed prices are 105-116 cents/lb for general purpose PS (GPPS) and high impact PS (HIPS) DEL (delivered) US.

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

Image above: Cups such as these are often made of PS. Source: Cultura/REX/Shutterstock