After closing at an assessed level of $885/mt Tuesday, sources initially reported 1,000 metric tonne CIF ARA barges for September and October delivery at a bid/offer range of $860-880/mt. Bid levels began to improve over the morning however, and by midday buyers were seen at $875/mt with some reports of bids as high as $880/mt against offers of $885/mt. But no trade was heard done.
According to one trader the rebound in price was simply a correction from the previous levels. "The price was just too low. Naphtha is at $669/mt, the contract price is now $893/mt and demand is good," the trader said.
The market was seen as balanced in the short term by one trader, who felt the current period of stability would remain. "Any change in the market will not happen until the second half of September," the trader added.
Some sources had previously shown concern that availability could tighten going forward as imports that arrived in July and August are consumed. This was dismissed by one source who felt that any impact on supply would not be seen in September because of ample supply and the downstream shutdowns.
BASF's 550,000 mt/year styrene monomer unit in Ludwigshafen, Germany will shutdown at the end of this week for an as yet unspecified period while it's 500,000 mt/year unit in Antwerp, Belgium started a scheduled shutdown August 16 and is not expected to be back until the end of September.
"I'm seeing a lot of benzene in storage for the beginning of this month and there is not that much demand because of the shutdown of BASF's styrene plant," the source said.
The source hinted at potential issues towards the end of September, and added: "Later on in the month, things could get tighter since we have no imports arriving. If the arb does not re-open, then I'd say the impact could come in October."
China Chemical Weekly: http://news.chemnet.com/en/detail-1411716.html
