This week, the styrene market saw a slight increase, with an average price of 8620 yuan/ton on August 10th and 8650 yuan/ton on August 14th, representing a 0.35% increase during the cycle and a 12.98% year-on-year increase.
Macro: On August 13th, international crude oil futures closed down. The settlement price of the September WTI crude oil futures contract in the United States was $81.25 per barrel, a decrease of $2.02 or 2.4%. The settlement price of Brent crude oil futures for October was $87.07 per barrel, a decrease of $1.91 or 2.2%.

On the cost side, the pure benzene market is experiencing strong fluctuations. Due to the impact of typhoons, the unloading of pure benzene cargo has been postponed, inventory at Jiangsu’s main ports continues to decline, and the restart time of some pure benzene facilities has been delayed, resulting in lower than expected production returns. As a result, the focus of pure benzene negotiations has increased. Downstream varieties maintain negative demand feedback, resulting in overall low downstream load. Overall, although the increase in supply is slightly lower than expected, the demand side is still weak, so the rebound space for pure benzene is limited.
Supply and demand side: During the week, styrene plant maintenance and restart coexisted. Due to low profits, the industry operating rate remained at a low level, and downstream 3S demand was in the off-season with limited demand increment. Under the weak supply and demand situation, the styrene market is fluctuating.
Styrene external market: On August 13th, the closing price of styrene in the Asian region rose by $17/ton, and the FOB closing price in South Korea was $1125-1135/ton. The closing price of CFR China is 1110-1120 US dollars per ton.
Market forecast: Currently, the supply and demand drivers in the styrene market are limited, and terminal demand has not yet recovered. Downstream industries have low profits, and it is expected that downstream enterprises will maintain a state of rigid demand procurement and high price resistance. It is expected that the styrene market will follow the fluctuation trend of oil prices in the short term.