Styrolution Europe will no longer take part in styrene contract price negotiations effective this monthr, following the permanent closure of Ineos Styrenics' Marl units, a company source said Friday.
In the middle of October, Ineos Styrenics closed its 350,000 mt/year styrene monomer plant and its 180,000 mt/year polystyrene plant permanently, following the termination of the off-take agreement between Ineos and Styrolution.
Prior to the closure, Styrolution was the main off-taker of the styrene and PS at both units and had participated in the contract price negotiation process as a seller, said the source.
"We are no longer in the CP process because we are no longer net long in styrene," said David Cunningham, Vice President, Styrene Europe at Styrolution. "We are now a buyer. November is the first full month that we have had no production out of Marl and that has changed our balances significantly. Around 40% of our styrene base is now removed."
Styrolution was previously a CP seller to end-users like Synthomer and other third party customers. With its departure, the remaining CP negotiators are Total, Styron, Synthomer, Shell and Synbra.
Additionally, after the closure of the Marl units, Styrolution had been running its existing 500,000 mt/year styrene plant at Antwerp at full rates and ramped up its PS operations at both Antwerp and Trelleborg, Cunningham added.
