Opening up “Golden Waterway” in “Deep Water”

Pentane refined product is refined by C5, and its main components are n-Pentane, Isopentane and Cyclopentane. Pentane blowing agent can be produced from it. Pentane refined products are the main products of many companies and big chemical industry is one of the main strategic development directions for those companies.
Take the Initiative to Seize the Market
At the beginning of this year, due to the impact of the soaring price of styrene, the raw material of EPS plants, most of the EPS manufacturers halted production. The downstream market of Pentane refined products showed an unprecedented downturn, and the demand for pentane blowing agent products decreased sharply. In the face of the severe market situation, how to “gold rush” in the terminal “deep water” customers has become a problem we need to think about.

Characteristics:

MARKET OVERVIEW

Updated to Q4 2020

Asia

Chinese supply remained sufficient on high average plant run rates and a lack of scheduled turnarounds. Inventories were high in east China. Supply outside China was capped from some regions because of scheduled turnarounds starting September. Arbitrage supply was healthy as well because of the workable price spread.

Demand from China remained weak through Q4 because of poor import distributor margins. Northeast Asian demand stayed strong because of high downstream run rates and cargo delays from the deep-sea region. Southeast Asian demand was mostly stable.

Europe

Planned maintenance took place at a few styrene plants and some facilities downstream. The series of shutdowns began at the end of August and will end by late November. EB and PO/SM run rates were reduced through most of Q4, but increased again by the end of the quarter.

The derivative ABS and SAN markets saw stable-to-higher demand from downstream sectors such as consumer appliances, automotives, electronics, sanitary and furniture applications in September. Most regions registered a contraction of key end-use construction activity in Q4 as social distancing restrictions affected building activity, with Russia and the UK seeing double-digit negative growth.

US

Supply was adequate despite outages from hurricanes and planned maintenance. In advance of Hurricane Laura, Styrolution briefly shut down its two Texas styrene units at Texas City and Bayport. The Westlake styrene plant in Lake Charles, Louisiana, was in the direct path of the storm and has been offline since late August. Westlake declared force majeure but they are not a major supplier to the US market.

The gradually recovering auto sector continued to weigh on styrene demand during the quarter. There were some signs of pent-up auto demand but auto production was hampered by the pandemic. Vehicle demand remains significantly down from this time last year and analysts point to recovery in 2021. Asian demand from Taiwan and South Korea cleared up some supply overhang.

ABOUT STYRENE

Pure styrene is a colourless to yellow, oily liquid that evaporates easily and has a sweet smell. Styrene is highly flammable, forms explosive mixtures in air, is dangerous when exposed to flame, heat or oxidants and on decomposition, emits acrid fumes.

Styrene is mainly used in the manufacture of homopolymers and copolymers. These include polystyrene (PS), expandable polystyrene (EPS), styrene copolymers (such as acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) resins, styrene-acrylonitrile (SAN) and styrene-butadiene latexes), styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) and unsaturated polyester resins.

Styrene is produced predominately by ethylbenzene (EB)-based technology. EB is first made by the catalytic alkylation of benzene with ethylene and then dehydrogenated to styrene. The coproduction of styrene with propylene oxide (PO) by the PO/SM process had been gaining popularity.

POLYSTYRENE (PS, HIPS, GPPS, EPS)

PROPERTIES AND APPLICATIONS

Polystyrene (PS) is is one of the largest volume commodity thermoplastics that can be converted into a large number of semi-finished products like foams, films, and sheets. This amorphous, nonpolar and low cost thermoplastic has excellent optical clarity due to the lack of crystallinity, good chemical resistance to diluted acids and bases, no odor and taste, and excellent thermal and electrical properties for insulation purposes.

It is also easy to fabricate into a large number of finished goods since the resin is a viscous liquid above its glass transition temperature that can be easily molded and foamed. However, polystyrene has several limitations; it is hard and rather brittle, has poor oxygen and UV resistance, is readily attacked by hydrocarbon solvents and its upper service temperature is relative low. Some of these limitations can be overcome by blending polystyrene with elastomers or by copolymerization with other monomers.

The three most important grades are:

GPPS: General purpose polystyrene, also known as crystal-clear polystyrene, is a fully transparent, rigid and rather brittle low cost thermoplastic made from styrene monomer. GPPS is a solid product manufactured in the form of 2-5 mm pellets.

HIPS: High impact polystyrene contains usually 5 to 10% rubber and is used for parts which require high(er) impact strength and flexibility.

EPS: Expandable polystyrene consists of micro-pellets or beads containing a blowing agent (usually pentane). The expanded or foamed polystyrene is thermally insulating, has high impact resistance and good processability.

PS is an inexpensive resin per unit weight and often a good choice for high volume, low cost applications. A large variety of products are manufactured by injection molding including dining utensils, food-packaging, plastic cups, housewares, toys, CD cases, cosmetic containers, covers and housings. It is also a popular material in the building and construction industry. Important applications include insulation foam, siding, panels, bath and shower units and various fixtures.

(Source: Chemical Industry News)