1、 Price trend

In December, under the cost support and demand suppression, the styrene price fell slowly after rising sharply, rebounded at the end of the month and rose as a whole. According to the monitoring of business society, the price of styrene was 7787.50 yuan / ton at the beginning of the month, and rose all the way to 8400.00 yuan / ton by mid December, up 7.87%. After that, it began to fall. To the 23rd, the price of styrene was 8000.00 yuan / ton, down 4.76% from the mid month high, but still up 2.73% from the beginning of the month. From the 23rd to the 31st, driven by the impact of cost support and the decline of port inventory, the price rebounded. On the 31st, the price of styrene was 8400 yuan / ton, up 7.87% from the beginning of the month.

2、 Market analysis

This month, under the influence of cost support and obvious destocking performance of wharf inventory due to incremental pick-up, the styrene price superimposed the market’s short expectation that Wanhua and lihuayi will be put into operation, which generally showed a slow decline after a sharp rise, and rebounded at the end of the month.

At the beginning of the month, the international crude oil entered the state of rising consolidation. The market situation of pure benzene, the raw material at the cost side, became one of the driving forces for the bottom support and slight rise of styrene. The short upsurge of pure benzene Market in Shandong promoted the rise of futures prices during the cycle, thus driving the spot to rise slightly.

By mid to late October, crude oil rebounded after falling, and the macro performance was acceptable, but it had no support for styrene. Due to the continuous rise of pure benzene inventory at the port, the operators tend to be cautious about the future market. The spot price of pure benzene is slightly corrected. The fundamentals of styrene are good, its output is slightly reduced, the downstream demand is stable, and the wharf inventory has obvious destocking performance due to the increase of delivery. However, Wanhua and lihuayi are about to be put into operation, the market expectation is short, the position increase of styrene futures is down, and the spot of styrene is down slightly.

From the end of the last ten days to the end of the month, after the crude oil price rose, the outer disk price of pure benzene rose sharply, and the domestic spot and far month negotiations actively pursued the outer disk. Due to the impact of the health incident of the Yangtze River pilot, the unloading cycle of the main commercial inventory of pure benzene was prolonged, and the arrival of some ships in transit was expected to be delayed, resulting in large households filling the air and raising the market price. The cost side supports the strength of styrene price, coupled with the decline of styrene port inventory, short-term spot tension in some domestic regions, obvious market rally mentality, and the spot price of styrene rebounds gradually.

Future forecast: business analysts believe that after entering January, due to the reduction of imported shipments from January to February, new styrene units are put into operation, and the extension of the unloading period of pure benzene import ships in the river, pure benzene is expected to be transferred to the warehouse removal stage, and the price of pure benzene may fluctuate at a high level. The cost support of styrene is still strong, but the supply and demand of styrene itself is not optimistic. With the production of Wanhua and the recovery of the supply of parking devices in the early stage, the domestic supply increases, while the downstream is still in the off-season, and the inventories of the three downstream are at a high level, so the demand for styrene has not improved. On the whole, there is a collision between good and bad. If the cost support is relaxed in the later stage, It will drive the correction of styrene price.