Polystyrene producersin Europe announce March increases

05-Mar-15

European polystyrene producers have announced increases of Eur190-195/mt in March polystyrene general purpose prices, as per Platts. Styrolution said it is raising GPPS prices by Eur190/mt, and will keep the high impact PS premium to GPPS at Eur90/mt. Trinseo plans to increase prices by Eur195/mt. Trinseo will commence a scheduled turnaround at its 260,000 tpa Tessenderlo polystyrene plant in Belgium in May, which was expected to last five to six weeks. As reported previously, the company said that it planned to allocate polystyrene supply from February onwards to prepare for the turnaround. The rise in PS prices comes after the key March styrene monomer feedstock contract jumped Eur175/mt to settle at Eur1070/mt FD NWE on Tuesday. The styrene monomer rise outstripped European ethyl-benzene styrene monomer production costs, which rose Eur44/mt for March, the first rise in 2015 following the settlement of the benzene and ethylene contracts last week. The March benzene contract settled at Eur540/mt FD NWE, up Eur19/mt, while the ethylene contract settled at Eur910/mt, up Eur100/mt. In addition the cost of polybutadiene, a key component of the HIPS price, also remained stable. The March PS price increase would mean a further margin gain for producers and followed producers' success in increasing January and February margins on tighter supply. Supply was tighter on a combination of constraints, a lack of imports, upcoming scheduled maintenance and good demand due to the expectation of higher costs in March. The tighter supply saw PS producers reporting having closed February order books earlier than expected due to healthy replenishing demand. The euro-dollar exchange rate continued to plunge to fresh lows, with the euro falling to a 12-year low this week of $1.1182, making imports more costly and less competitive.