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Styrene shortage could ease with Maasvlakte restart / Benzene fundamentals steady

Styrene shortage could ease with Maasvlakte restart / Benzene fundamentals steady

Apr 20, 2024

Lyondell Basell announced April 19 that the joint-owned propylene monomer and styrene oxide plant in Maasvlakte, Netherlands, has resumed operations. S&P Global Commodity Insights reported April 2 that the plant had ceased operations on March 27 because of an outage. Maasvlakte can produce up to 300,000 mt/year propylene and 635,000 mt/year SM. Styrene prices increased in response to the closure of the plant in early April, but have fallen in recent weeks as a result of anticipation for the plant's restart. A source stated that the supply of styrene in Europe is decreasing, but conditions are not very active. The European benzene markets did not show any fundamental changes. The day before April 19 was a quiet one for liquidity. The spread between benzene and styrene was $330.75/mt.