Recovering Demand and Rising Input Cost Pushing up Prices of Styrene Butadiene Rubber (SBR) Globally

As per ChemAnalyst data, the price of Styrene-Butadiene Rubber (SBR) has increased in the first week of June under the influence of rising demand from the end-use industries. The overall demand fundamentals for the product remained inflated across Asian market, owing to rising international crude oil prices amidst loose demand, which made SBR price to rise.

As per the analysis, In India's domestic market, price of Styrene-Butadiene Rubber increased by 1% during the first week of June. The key reason responsible for this hike was prolonged firmness in crude oil prices, expanding demand and fears of supply disturbances that have applied vertical strain on oil costs, and in return, it has hiked in prices of Styrene and Butadiene, which is the main raw material for the product. With the rise in feedstock prices, the production cost of Styrene also escalated, proportionally impacting the prices in the domestic market. Furthermore, the continuous demand from the automotive industry became the driving force for burgeoning prices of Styrene-Butadiene Rubber in the Indian market.

Recently, China has also experienced an increment of 1.1% in the prices of Styrene-Butadiene Rubber due to a rise in international crude oil prices and restricted downstream demand. As per the ChemAnalyst, the domestic market of China is recovering after the government pulled off lockdown restrictions and resumed trading activities. In addition, converters have been raising their offers to regain their margins from domestic as well as international markets.

In the USA, the price of Styrene-Butadiene Rubber increased by 1% during the second half of May due to disrupted supply fundamentals. Moreover, Prices of imports arriving from Asian and European producers have risen on the back of rising freight costs and hampered European domestic production due to imbalanced energy supply in the region.