BASF: Margin increase for polystyrene in Europe starting in July 2006
As of July 2006, BASF will be increasing its margin for setting the price of the plastic polystyrene in Europe. In this context, the term margin refers to the difference between the price of polystyrene and the price of its main feedstock, styrene. To start with, BASF will be raising its margin for polystyrene by 50 euros per metric ton. The reason for adjusting the margin is the rise in the energy costs incurred for the production of this plastic, in the freight costs and in the costs of auxiliaries and additives such as butadiene rubber and white mineral oil.
"Simply adjusting the polystyrene prices in parallel to the styrene costs is no longer sufficient to keep this business profitable over the long haul," explains Wolfgang Gutting, head of BASF's Styrenics Europe business unit. "Since the fixed costs have meanwhile been optimized all the way to their utmost limit, we are now forced to also institute price increases for polystyrene that go beyond merely compensating for the styrene costs."
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