In US, the prices of styrene rose once again amid high demand and muted supply. The prices surged to $1385/ton FOB Texas with week-on-week inclination of 1.46% compared with the first week of January where prices were observed to be $1365/ton FOB Texas.

The US market is highly dependent on the downstream Styrene Monomer. Supply dynamics and import volume from the starting of January 2022 appears to be tight as the high demand and limited supply creates barrier in balancing supply/demand statistics. Styrene supply had disrupted since Hurricane Ida had hit the North America’s operating rates for Styrene monomer. The demand rebounded after the weak December where prices dropped to $1266/ton FOB Texas as the buyers looks to rebuild the stocks. Feedstock Benzene and Ethylene prices were also surged with increasing crude prices. Recovering in downstream Polystyrene demand and surging application in end user industries boost the price trend. The demand of Styrene is increased in various Asian countries like India, South Korea, the export market was observed to come to the track where the US styrene producers had revised their prices for the overseas suppliers.

According to ChemAnalyst, it is expected that the prices of Styrene in the upcoming weeks will increase due to continuous shortage of raw material benzene and Ethylene along with increasing crude oil prices. Polar Storms in the February 2022 can affect the production units and the producers had to operate their plant cautiously which can create supply/demand gap and result in shortage of Styrene Monomer in the domestic market of US. The increase in consumption of Styrene in South America mainly Brazil and in Asian countries like India and South Korea can increase the overseas prices. Increase in consumption of Styrene Monomer in automobile and electronic industries may also pressurized the industries to provide the necessity to fulfil the consumer demand which ultimately leads to price hike.