Futures prices of styrene monomer(SM) in China have been on a downtrend since January as a forecast of recovering supply. However, there are many views that prices may not necessarily be weak going forward as demand for derivatives is steady and inventory is being consumed quickly in the East China region. On the supply side, an SM facility at Abel in China resumed operation on Nov 21 and a facility at Lotte Chemical in South Korea began restarting on Dec 1. LG Chem's facilities are currently maintaining an operating rate of 70%. In addition, several facilities in China currently undergoing regular maintenance are scheduled to resume operation after mid-December. If these facilities are restarted, the tightness of supply may soften. However, the quantity of imported products arriving is small due to the delay in the arrival of non-regional products and continuous troubles at overseas SM facilities. SM inventories have fallen to low levels in the East China region. Another reason for the decline in the inventories is that traders resold some of their imports to South Korea. On the demand side, high operations of production facilities for derivative products continue as market prices of many derivatives such as polystyrene have been firm, and the profitability of derivative producers has been good.