Trinseo is a specialty material provider, and it has two polymers manufacturing plants in Europe, the last week Trinseo raised the price of Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene (ABS) by Euros 35/MT in Europe on 1st January 2023 due to prolonged inflation pressure and fluctuations in raw material prices. In addition, it has increased the price of Polystyrene by about Euros 150/MT and Styrene-Acrylonitrile (SAN) resins by Euros 50/MT.

There was no significant demand from the downstream industries, such as the Automotive and construction sectors, in Q4 2022, and it continues to decline in January 2023 due to high inflation in the region. The consumers hesitated to buy the materials due to the pessimism about the European economy.

Some European countries will enter into recession this year due to the prolonged economic decline, and trade & industrial activities declined in the region. In terms of supply, the ABS material is sufficiently available in the European market, and demand for ABS is weak in the region. The orders from the ABS end-use sectors are needed to improve the market. This will indicate the low demand in the ABS market in Europe.

According to International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected global economic growth from 3.2% in 2022 to 2.7% in 2023. Although, as per the European Commission, the EU's GDP growth is anticipated to decrease from 5.4% in 2021 to 3.3% in 2022 and 0.3% in 2023.

According to the expert, the cost of ABS Extrusion grade hovered around USD 2875/MT on an FD Hamburg basis with a weekly depreciation of 0.8% during the week ending 06th January 2023.

As per ChemAnalyst, the ABS price is predicted to increase in the upcoming weeks due to high inflation rates in the region despite a decrease in orders from the end-use industries. As a result, demand declined in the ABS resin market. Germany Industry associations are pessimistic about the economy, expect fewer productions due to high energy prices due to war, and show no signs of abating.