Local GPPS prices in China have been firming up steadily since the beginning of September while local HIPS prices have been edging lower, as per the pricing service of ChemOrbis. As a result of these opposing moves of the GPPS and HIPS markets, local GPPS prices are now trading close to par with HIPS. The traditional premium of $100-150/ton HIPS carries over GPPS has almost eroded recently.
The reason behind this situation is the limited availability for GPPS, which also creates better demand for this product with respect to HIPS. “Tight supply has pushed GPPS prices high enough to virtually equal the prevailing HIPS prices,” a distributor in Xiamen reported. A domestic producer in China reported holding its GPPS and HIPS offers stable this week when compared to the previous week.
“GPPS supply remains insufficient and this naturally helps make better sales for this product,” a company source told ChemOrbis. He also noted, “We are receiving much lower bids than our offers in the HIPS market. We can only conclude deals after providing some discounts.” A second domestic producer has also kept its GPPS offers unchanged on the back of limited supply. “We could conclude HIPS deals only for a small amount of material after consenting to some price cuts from last week. Apparently, HIPS prices will come down further next week,” commented a producer source.
