In early February, the domestic ABS market fluctuated and fell, with most spot prices of various grades being lowered. According to the Commodity Market Analysis System of SunSirs, as of February 9th, the average price of ABS sample products was 9,187.50 RMB/ton, with a price level increase or decrease of -1.74% compared to the beginning of the month.

Supply level: Since February, the load of the domestic ABS industry has remained stable with small fluctuations, with an overall slight decrease within the range. The Tianjin Dagu plant has been shut down to carry out blowing tasks, and the overall operating level of the industry has been reduced by about 3% to 64%, with an average weekly output of less than 140,000 tons. The inventory position of aggregation enterprises continues to decline at around 190,000 tons, and the supply on site remains tightly balanced. Overall, the stage of supply and demand in the ABS market is not significant, and the supply side has increased its support for ABS spot prices.

Cost factor: Within the first ten days of February, the upstream three materials market of ABS rebounded after rising, which weakened the impact on the cost side of ABS. Acrylonitrile rose upstream at the beginning of the month, but the new acrylonitrile plant of Yulong Petrochemical was put into operation, resulting in an increase in supply to the northern market. As the Spring Festival approaches, spot buying has weakened, and the acrylonitrile market has significantly fallen after rising.

The butadiene market is showing a high-level downward trend. Last month, the cost side crude oil prices were relatively high, strengthening bottom support. As the Spring Festival approaches and downstream stocking ends before the holiday, the support for essential needs weakens. In addition, the industry load remained strong during the Spring Festival period, and the expected accumulation of inventory in the future led to a weak consolidation of the market due to the loose supply and demand pattern. However, the low inventory level in the early stage and the linkage with the external market have formed multiple benefits, and it is expected that the space for a significant decline in styrene prices is limited.

The styrene market also experienced a high-level decline. In the early stage, the resumption of work in the domestic industry did not meet expectations, while the maintenance of overseas styrene plants increased. The increase in inquiries and actual transactions for China's styrene exports further drove the depletion of port inventory. But recently, some devices have returned and the supply side has rebounded. In addition, the situation in the Middle East has gradually exhausted the favorable crude oil prices, and the raw material pure benzene is trading sideways at a high level, lacking further guidance on the fundamentals of styrene. It is expected that the styrene market will continue to consolidate during the Spring Festival period.

On the demand side: In early February, there was no significant increase in consumption in the downstream electrical housing industry of ABS, and the improvement in profitability of end enterprises was limited. As the Spring Festival approaches and pre holiday stocking is basically over, buyers have little willingness to continue reducing their inventory. On exchange trading is gradually entering a bottleneck, but there are still some high chasing orders being executed. The current inventory position of merchants is not high, and the quotes between enterprises and merchants are firm. Overall, the demand side is supporting the ABS market to level off.

Before the holiday, the domestic ABS market was weakly consolidating. The production load of the aggregation plant has remained stable with a slight decrease, and the supply on site has maintained a tight balance. After the rise of costs and materials, they have fallen back. Business analysts believe that the macro level ABS supply-demand imbalance pattern still exists, but the strong momentum of buying orders at low prices at the beginning of the year has eased production and sales pressure. The stocking before the New Year's Eve has been basically completed, and coupled with the significant increase in the previous period, buyers' acceptance of prices has declined. It is expected that ABS may enter a calm consolidation market in the future.

If you have any enquiries or purchasing needs, please feel free to contact SunSirs with support@sunsirs.com.