Taiwanese producer lowers PS prices to SEA, China

A source from a Taiwanese producer reported that they implemented decreases on their PS offers to China and Southeast Asian markets when compared to their most recent levels.

The producer cut their prices by $20-30/ton for GPPS and $10-20/ton for HIPS when compared to last week, bringing their new offers to $1340-1345/ton for GPPS injection and to $1400-1405/ton for HIPS injection, on a CIF SEA/China, cash basis.

The source stated that these offers are open to negotiations. Regarding demand conditions in the market, he said, “Demand is not doing well as styrene prices had been following a softening trend for the last few days. Players prefer to stay on the sidelines. By comparison, GPPS demand is better than HIPS.”

The source evaluating recent styrene prices also said, “The reason for yesterday’s styrene rebound was lower inventory levels in China. We will revise our offers in line with the route of styrene. We are not under any sales pressure for now.”

The source also reported hearing Taiwan Styrene Monomer Corporation will have maintenance for a month at their styrene line with 340,000 tons/ year production capacity.”Along with other maintenances in Japan and Korea, we are holding positive expectations about the market outlook for the first quarter,” he said.