Locally-held ABS trades below imports in Turkey
However, the impact of rallying costs of import ABS found limited reflection in the locally-held market since then as the vulnerable economic and political environment kept activity cautious and put a cap on larger hikes from distributors.
Currently, the locally-held ABS natural injection market stands below the import market on a weekly average, as can be seen in the graph below:

Source: ChemOrbis Price Wizard
“South Korean ABS natural prices posted a new round of increases for February to stand at $1800-1850/ton CIF Turkey, cash. We just started to persuade buyers to accept $1850/ton ex-warehouse Turkey, cash not inc VAT,” complained distributors.
Some players pointed to the cash flow issues going on in Turkey’s polymer markets, saying, “This situation still forces a few distributors to concede to prices below their replacement costs.”
Sellers hope that demand may improve a bit in the second half of the month as USD/Turkish lira parity eased down to below 3.77 recently. Plus, China’s ABS market may return from holiday on a strong note amidst limited styrene, butadiene and ABS supplies in Asia which could pave the way for additional increases in Turkey, they remind.
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