Polystyrene buyers are holding back from purchases due to high styrene prices globally, Trinseo President and CEO Chris Pappas said during the company's full year and Q4, 2017 financial results call Tuesday.
Trinseo is a major producer of polystyrene, with PS plants globally.
"Customers are not buying heavily in the month of March," Pappas said.
"Customers will hold back certain purchases, in this case polystyrene,"he said, adding that this applied to "some degree" to the acrylonitrile butadiene styrene market.
High styrene prices have supported PS prices, according to S&P Global Platts data.
In Europe, the February styrene contract price was fully settled at Eur1,395/mt ($1,722/mt). S&P Global Platts assessed the GPPS net contract price for February at Eur1,560/mt FD NWE last Wednesday, up Eur110/mt from the last week of January.
An EPS seller source based in Europe said last week: "March will be tough."
This echoed developments in Q1, 2017 when PS demand slumped due to volatile styrene prices.
