ABS sellers’ firm stance eases in China, SEA despite higher costs

Players in China’s and Southeast Asia’s ABS markets reported that some sellers were willing to concede to discounts this week after they mostly maintained their firm stance over the past three months of consecutive increases.

In China, although demand was reported to be healthy ahead of the manufacturing season, overall activity slowed down as buyers started to limit their purchases given the significant amounts of earlier ABS hikes.

A trader noted, “Supplies from major Taiwanese producers remain limited while upstream costs are firming up. However, neither traders nor converters are willing to secure cargoes at the current offer levels as they think the market increased too much in the previous weeks.”

A few traders offering Taiwanese ABS to China cut their prices by around $10-20/ton from last week in order to speed up their sales, saying, “The market continues to receive support from low supply levels while higher costs also contribute to the sentiment. However, demand is not as strong as it was in the previous weeks as ABS prices increased quite rapidly, which hampered buying appetite.”

A distributor of a South Korean producer opined, “Our supplier kept its offers stable at $1900/ton CIF China, cash this week. Despite the recent rebound of feedstock costs, demand is not promising as most converters have already secured their needs for the upcoming months.”

A source from a Southeast Asian producer commented, “ABS prices have slightly softened this week given faltering demand in China. In Southeast Asia, buying activity was already weak due to the rainy season.”

The overall ranges for import ABS prices are currently reported at $1835-1930/ton CIF China, cash and at $1800-1880/ton CIF SEA, cash. On a weekly comparison, the ranges indicate decreases of up to $40/ton.