Firm oil prices lift sentiment Pre-holiday stocking leads to sluggish buying interest



The spot price for Asian general-purpose
polystyrene was up $95/mt-$98/mt this week at $1.455/mt-$1.460/mt in China and
$1.605/mt-$1.612/mt in Southeast Asia on February 9. Source data revealed that the higher upstream prices
and logistic limitations were largely responsible for the increase in Asian
general-purpose polystyrene spot prices. The ICE Brent futures April
contract rose $1.54/b-$1.65/b to $90.97/b-$90.112/b at 0830 GMT on February 9. After the Lunar New Year holidays, market participants
returned to their normal trading hours, resulting in a bullish PS outlook. This
was due to higher oil prices upstream, which pushed up local producer offers. According to trade sources, GPPS conversations in China were
heard at Yuan 250-300/mt (9,900-10,100/mt) while high-impact polystyrene prices
(HIPS), rose from Yuan 300-400/mt (12,000-12,100/mt)...