PS contract prices in US fall by US$0.02/lb. for May, based on US$0.23/gallon decrease in benzene contracts; demand for PS in US continues to improve though price fall brings US PS market to second consecutive monthly decline

Elyse Blye

LONDON , June 16, 2014 (ICIS Chemical Business (CBNB Abstracts) ) – Contract prices of US polystyrene (PS) dropped by 2 cents/lb ($44/tonne) for May 2014 based on a 23 cent/gal decrease in benzene contracts to $4.57/gal for the same period. ICIS data showed that delivered (DEL) prices were at 107-109 cents/lb for bulk general purpose PS (GPPS) and 115-117 cents/lb for bulk high-impact PS (HIPS). Still, these prices are more than 5% higher than the 2013 levels. The demand for PS in the US continues to improve. However, the price fall brought the US PS market to its second consecutive monthly decline. The industry fell by as much as 3% through Apr 2014. A line graph shows DEL prices (cents/lb) of bulk GPPS in the US from May 2013 until May 2014.

* All content is copyrighted by Industry Intelligence, or the original respective author or source. You may not recirculate, redistrubte or publish the analysis and presentation included in the service without Industry Intelligence's prior written consent. Please review our terms of use.