Styrolution will target a polystyrene gross market price increase of Eur135/mt ($191/mt) for August, the Germany-headquartered styrenics company said Tuesday.
The company also said that it would target a high impact PS premium over general purpose PS of around Eur150/mt.
Platts assessed general purpose net contract PS prices at Eur1,280/mt FD NWE in July, while high impact net July CPs were assessed at Eur1,430/mt.
The announcement follows Ineos Styrenics which said last week it would target an increase of Eur120/mt.
Market participants had anticipated a sharp rise in August feedstock costs. Producers said last week that the higher prices in August were needed to compensate for the rise in production costs.
Styrolution's announcement also follows the settlement of two styrene August contracts on Monday.
A second Northwest Europe August styrene barge contract price settled at Eur1,199/mt ($1,727/mt) FD NWE between Styrolution and Synthomer, sources from both companies involved in the negotiations confirmed Monday.
This followed an initial August styrene barge contract price at Eur1,245/mt between Shell Chemicals and its consumer Synbra, up Eur129/mt. Shell Chemicals declined to comment on the matter.
Another styrene contract is expected to settle this week, together forming the NWE styrene contract mechanism.
Based on the August benzene CP increase of Eur132/mt and the August ethylene rise of Eur30/mt versus the July level, this implies an increase of Eur114.60/mt in ethyl-benzene styrene monomer production costs for August.
This EB styrene calculation was based on industry standard general production ratios of 0.3 for ethylene and 0.8 for benzene.
