China Petroleum and Chemical Corp., or Sinopec, has cut its ex-works butadiene prices in East and South China by Yuan 500/mt ($81/mt) to Yuan 8,000/mt effective March 15, a company source confirmed Monday.
This is equivalent to about $1,085/mt on an import parity basis.
Sinopec cited weak downstream demand as the key factor for the cuts.
A trade source said another reason to cut domestic butadiene prices was to limit imports. He said Sinopec was "cutting the butadiene price continuously to protect the Chinese domestic styrene rubber market."
Sinopec has already sharply reduced its prices this month. Earlier in March, it reduced East and North China prices by Yuan 1,600/mt and South China prices by Yuan 1,900/mt to Yuan 8,500/mt.
