Taiwanese ABS surged in Indonesia on the back of tight supply, strong upstream
Taiwanese ABS surged in Indonesia on the back of tight supply, strong upstream
Indonesian players reported having received fresh ABS offers from a major Taiwanese producer with a $200/ton hike from the previous month to $2450/ton CIF Indonesia on the back of the persistent supply tightness and surging upstream styrene monomer.
In fact, styrene monomer (SM) has been constantly firming up since late December 2020 with support from the resilient energy complex. The increases are especially steep this week following a series of plant outages in Japan and the USA after natural disasters struck the two countries.
Affected plants include:
|
Plant |
Location |
Capacity |
Shutdown Date |
Shutdown Duration |
|
Idemitsu Kosan |
Chiba, Japan |
210,000 |
13 Feb |
50 days |
|
Denka |
Chiba, Japan |
270,000 |
13 Feb |
Unknown |
|
INEOS Styrolution |
Bayport, Texas |
780,000 |
15 Feb |
Unknown |
|
INEOS Styrolution |
Texas City |
450,000 |
15 Feb |
Unknown |
|
LyondellBasell/Covestro |
Channel View, Texas |
1,270,000 |
12 Feb |
Unknown |
Sources said that these shutdowns have curtailed availability for March loading substantially and likely to push SM prices higher regardless of the lack of buying activities in China right after the holiday. As of 18 February 2021, SM based on FOB Korea surged $66/ton from the previous day to $1230/ton, which is $435/ton jumped from the cyclical bottom observed at the end of December 2020.
Demand for ABS across the region remains satisfactory and a couple of producers reported having received an increased number of inquiries for cargoes in recent days.
“Our regular suppliers from South Korea do not even open any offer for this week citing lacking availability. With the support from steady demand and strong upstream costs, ABS offers would continue to gallop higher moving forward,” a buyer added.