Producers managed to maintain or increase margins on most accounts.
Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) prices registered small increases in August of around €10-20/mt, according to GC Intelligence price assessments.
Some buyers, mainly the ones on contracts based on costs, managed to secure rollovers.
The price movements were broadly in line with costs or higher.
ABS Prices registered small increases in August also because the European market is balancing out.
The main reason for this is that import volumes from Asia are lower. Prices and demand in the region are higher and import prices are not competitive in Europe.
While producers experienced a slight increase in margins this month, they are still catching up to the losses incurred in 2019 and 2020.
Demand is moving in the right direction but is overall lower than last year.
While some sectors such as appliances and toys are doing well, others such as automotive are still relatively weak.
Players are expecting a pick up in activity in September. But given the increases in infections across Europe in August, there are doubts over a strong rebound.