London (Platts)--8Feb2013/830 am EST/1330 GMT

LyondellBasell has settled its February Northwest European styrene monomer contract price at Eur1,448/mt ($2,009/mt) FCA Rotterdam with the majority of its customers, one of the company's customers confirmed.

The February CP represents a decrease of Eur40/mt from the January contract price of Eur1,488/mt FCA Rotterdam. The CP is settled with all customers that it sells to via barges, vessels and trucks.

Not all of LyondellBasell's customers agreed to the number, although it was a majority settlement, the source said. One of LBI's other customers, Synthomer, said it did not agree to the price.

"Demand is not breaking any records at the moment, and we are hoping the market will pick up as we move into March and April," said the source. "We are not particularly concerned about the tightness [due to upcoming maintenance] where we have supply contracts, there is no reason why we should be worried. If I were a 100% spot buyer, I would be, but with demand remaining relatively subdued and producers have contingency plans, what we have to be careful of is talking ourselves into a problem here."

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Last Friday, the Northwest European styrene monomer February contract price was fully settled at Eur1,448/mt ($1,976/mt) FOB ARA. The CP also represents a fall of Eur40/mt from the January CP of Eur1,488/mt FOB ARA.

Earlier last week both ethylene and benzene February contracts were settled, industry sources said, giving a composite cost reduction effect for styrene of around Eur90/mt.

The NWE February benzene contract price was settled at Eur1,040/mt ($1,408/mt) FD NWE, representing a month-on-month decrease of Eur113/mt ($121/mt).

The ethylene contract price for February was concluded at a rollover at Eur1,275/mt FD NWE, a third consecutive monthly rollover, according to Platts data.

--Michelle Ho, michelle_ho@platts.com
--Edited by Jonathan Fox, jonathan_fox@platts.com

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