China Petroleum and Chemical Corp., or Sinopec, slashed its ex-works prices of butadiene by 5% for a second time this month in East, South and North China, effective Tuesday, local end-users said.
The state-owned company's subsidiaries in the three regions are now offering butadiene at Yuan 17,000/mt, or about $2,244/mt on an import parity basis, down Yuan 1,000/mt from Yuan 18,000/mt on August 7, when prices were also cut by 5%.
Also effective Tuesday, Sinopec cut its ex-works prices in the three regions for 1502 grade styrene butadiene rubber and 1712 grade SBR to Yuan 18,000/mt and Yuan 15,600/mt, respectively, both down Yuan 500/mt. SBR 1502 prices were cut by Yuan 500/mt to Yuan 18,500/mt on August 9, while SBR 1712 prices was cut by Yuan 400/mt to Yuan 16,100/mt on August 8.
The prices apply to Sinopec's subsidiaries in East China -- Sinopec Yangzi Petrochemical, Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical and Zhenhai Refining & Chemical -- its units in South China -- Guangzhou Petrochemical and Maoming Petrochemical -- and its North China unit Sinopec Sabic Tianjin.
One end-user attributed the cut in butadiene prices to a lack of domestic demand from tire producers and weaker natural rubber prices, with several others saying Sinopec's ex-works prices had more room to fall as ex-tank prices in the country were hovering at about Yuan 16,000/mt.
On Monday, TSR 20 (Technically Specified Rubber) prices for September were down 7 cents at $2.51/kg FOB Basis Singapore, Platts data showed. TSR grades are using in high-performance passenger and motorcycle tires as well as heavy-load truck tires.
