China SM market trend
In the China styrene monomer (SM) market, sentiments are weak owing to a sense of slack supply/demand. Several production facilities have entered maintenance since May and operation rates are at a low level of 63-65%. However, some major producers are scheduled to restart operations in June onwards and operation rates might rise to about 70%.
On the other hand, buying interest from traders and end-users is weak. There are expectations that supply might increase going forward. Meanwhile, for derivatives including polystyrene, demand is dull and operating rates of production facilities are low.
Sellers are not in a rush for sale since costs of feedstocks such as crude oil are high due to the tense situation in the Middle East. Further, they have room for sale in the international market. Under these circumstances, there are also views that SM prices are unlikely to fall sharply going forward.
Maintenance schedule of SM facilities is as follows:
|
SM facility maintenance |
||||
|
Area |
Company |
Capacity mt/year |
Period |
Notes |
|
Northeast China |
Jilin Petrochemical |
320,000 |
From Apr 15 for 50 days |
|
|
Bora LyondellBasell |
350,000 |
From May 15 for 30 days |
|
|
|
Shandong |
Zibo Junchen |
500,000 |
From May 11 for 40 days |
|
|
Yulong Petrochemical |
500,000 |
From May 11 to end of May |
|
|
|
East China |
Zhejiang Petrochemical |
600,000 |
From May 7 for 40 days |
|
|
Xinyang Petrochemical |
350,000 |
From May 11, timing of restart undermined |
|
|
|
ZRCC |
620,000 |
From May 25 to Jun 15 |
|
|
|
Jiangsu Shenghong |
450,000 |
From June for two months |
|
|
|
South China |
Gulei Petrochemical |
600,000 |
From Mar 9 for 50 days |
Restart delayed |
|
Sinochem Quanzhou |
450,000 |
From May 8 for 10 days |
Shutdown due to troubles |
|
Post
Print
