China Petroleum and Chemical Corp., or Sinopec, cut its ex-works butadiene offers in eastern China, effective Tuesday to Yuan 7,800/mt, or about $962/mt on an import parity basis, down Yuan 700/mt or 8.2%, market sources said.
The last time the state-run company revised prices was on May 26, when they were reduced by Yuan 500/mt to Yuan 8,500/mt.
An oversupply of both butadiene and rubber in China has hurt buying interest for the synthetic rubber feedstock.
On June 1, natural rubber stocks at Qingdao were estimated at 215,900 mt, up 4.4% compared with 206,800 mt on May 15.
For synthetic rubber, Qingdao's stocks totaled 55,800 mt, down 1.6% from 56,700 mt over the two-week period.
To help reduce the glut in rubber supply, several styrene-butadiene-rubber producers were operating their plants at lower rates, thus reducing their butadiene requirements.
Due to the weak demand, butadiene prices were assessed at $955/mt CFR China on June 2, down $60/mt week on week, S&P Global Platts data showed.
