World’s largest Benzene exporter South Korea has started witnessing sudden hike in price of Benzene and its downstream derivatives in the domestic as well as for international market. As per ChemAnalyst data, more than 21% rise in price of Benzene has been observed since the first week of December 2021, which pushed up the price of derivative Styrene Monomer (SM) by around 11% within past 6 weeks.

There are couple of reasons behind these sharp increase in price of these commodities, like high crude oil value, high export demand from USA. Recently, USA registered a significant rebound in imports of Benzene from South Korea, which was previously running low due to halted production activities of Styrene Monomer in domestic market. Since early 2021, devastation done by freezing storm in gulf coast, hurricane Ida in August and pandemic related turmoil has been disturbing US market, which reduced the overall supply of Styrene Monomer and imports of Benzene in the country. However, during the month of December, significant offtakes of Benzene from South Korea that too on premium was observed, which also affected the market price of Benzene and its derivatives like Styrene Monomer in South Korean market. In addition, rising crude oil value has also pushed up the prices of several commodities in the global market, including Benzene and Styrene in South Korea, meanwhile manufacturers had to battle with rising Omicron dominance in the country.

As per ChemAnalyst analysis, price of Benzene and Styrene are expected to maintain this trend for further period in the domestic market of South Korea. Being largest exporter of Benzene, pricing dynamics in importing countries will also be affected by these frequent revisions, like India imports large amount of Styrene from South Korea and inline with Korea, prices of Styrene is also rising in Indian market.