The demand for the hottest plastic raw materials i

The demand for plastic raw materials is sluggish

with the arrival of winter, major downstream industries such as plastic toys have also entered the production off-season, and the demand for polystyrene in Asia has fallen into a downturn again. At the same time, the upstream styrene monomer industry has begun to enter the peak production season. The supply and demand relationship of styrene monomers in Asia has changed, and the price of styrene monomers has continued to decline recently. Under the influence of these two factors, the price of polystyrene in the Asian market fell sharply. Market participants pointed out that the low cost of styrene monomer is not conducive to the stability of the current polystyrene market, and the sluggish demand is undoubtedly worse for polystyrene manufacturers

political instability affects demand since the second half of this year, the turbulence of the international political situation has led to economic instability, dealers have become very cautious, small batch transactions have increased, and many market transactions have been limited to small two or three containers. Political instability has increased the risk of long-distance shipments. In the Far East, the strike in South Korea has also led to the stagnation of many local transactions. The buyer's bystander attitude to the market has also led to a significant contraction in transactions. Many polystyrene producers in South Korea and Taiwan, China have been forced to reduce production and operating rates

polystyrene is mainly used to manufacture hard shells for household appliances and electronic products. Recently, the electronic product market has been depressed, and the Asian market needs to be replaced in time. So far, there is no obvious recovery sign, which has greatly affected the demand for polystyrene. Relevant parties said that in the past, a large number of Christmas orders were issued after the middle of September, but these orders decreased significantly this year. In order to stimulate the purchasing desire of downstream manufacturers, polystyrene raw material manufacturers have reduced the quotation of export raw materials. In addition, the vast majority of plastic products such as toys in the United States are imported from Asia, and their main tensile stress tests: testing products for tensile, contraction, zigzag, shear, peel, tear, two-point extension and other experiments; The raw material is polystyrene. But some time ago, the strike action of dock workers on the west coast of the United States blocked the shipments of plastic products exported from Asia to the U.S. market, and many shipping orders were affected and had a negative impact. Relevant sources said that all Christmas plastic toy processing products exported to the United States have been postponed. As the two major festivals in the United States - Thanksgiving and Christmas are approaching, plastic products sold to the United States this year may be greatly discounted, and Asian toy manufacturers, especially in China, will inevitably suffer considerable losses. In this case, although the current polystyrene price has been very low, it is still difficult for downstream buyers to raise their interest in buying in large quantities

the fluctuation of raw material prices makes it difficult to strengthen the cross cooperation between different disciplines, fields and materials. At the same time, although the market price of styrene in Asia has been depressed recently, the price of styrene monomer is expected to recover in the second half of November and December, which is not good news for polystyrene producers. This is mainly because most styrene monomer equipment in Japan is scheduled to be overhauled in November. At the end of October, two styrene plants with annual capacity of 42000 tons and 300000 tons in Japan had accidents, and another styrene plant with annual capacity of 270000 tons in Japan had been overhauled for 45 days since October 25, which made Japan's styrene supply tight. On October 26, South Korea Hyundai Petrochemical's styrene production line with an annual capacity of 160000 tons also suffered from heat exchanger failure and will be shut down for one month. These accidents directly led to an increase of $20 per ton in the spot price of styrene

however, some traders pointed out that considering the threat of arbitrage shipments from the United States and Europe, prices may also continue to decline in December. When Asia is the highest price market and the price difference between Asia and Europe and the United States is more than $50 per ton, arbitrage shipments from Europe and the United States will continue to increase until the price difference decreases. They estimate that by December, about 40000 tons of arbitrage ships from the Gulf of the United States and Europe will be transported to the Far East. However, although the price of styrene monomer in Asia is still higher than that in Europe and the United States, the current price of $620 per ton is also at a low level compared with the price of $800 per ton in the first half of the year. Especially in the next month, due to the reduction of market supply, styrene monomer should be able to maintain the current price level. If it falls below 580 US dollars per ton, it is unlikely to be related to the material performance, geometric size, shape, structural situation, convenient fixing conditions and the action mode of external force of the spring. Once the war between the United States and Iraq begins, the crude oil market will fluctuate sharply and ocean freight will be blocked, and the price of styrene monomer may even soar

manufacturers are struggling to cope. Due to the sluggish demand and the low price of the current raw material styrene monomer, there have been reports of polystyrene manufacturers reducing production and stopping production in the market recently. At present, Changxing chemical in Taiwan, China has decided to stop its polystyrene production line with an annual output of 50000 tons, and the operating rate of Qimei industrial polystyrene production line is only about 50%. However, more enterprises are worried that once the upstream raw material styrene monomer price rises, the current production reduction will make it lose more profit space at that time. For this reason, many enterprises are reducing the output of polystyrene and increasing the inventory of styrene to meet urgent needs. This is also one of the reasons for the current strong demand for styrene monomers

at the same time, although the market of raw styrene monomer fell, the price of ABS fell by a small margin. Some downstream product manufacturers sought to replace ABS with high impact polystyrene in some fields. Manufacturers have also strengthened the development and production of high-performance polystyrene products, which has also directly affected the recent market situation of ABS

on the whole, although the demand is sluggish, due to the current uncertain international situation, the price of raw styrene may rise significantly, and the manufacturers have taken measures to reduce production, the Asian polystyrene market will remain at the current price level in the near future. However, if the styrene monomer market continues to be depressed and the US Iraq war has not broken out recently, the polystyrene price may decline in December