Automotive recovery prompts optimism for European SBR and PP - Platts

ERJ staff report (BC)

London – A cautious optimism is forming in the styrene-butadiene-rubber (SBR) and polypropylene markets, reports Platts, on the basis of indications that the decline in the downstream European automotive sector could have found a bottom amid improved macroeconomic data, market sources are said to have intimated this week.

Traditionally, notes Platts, a higher standard of living and higher GDP growth are seen as supportive for growth in many segments of the petrochemicals industry.

The Eurozone manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), a key indicator of regional private-sector activity, climbed to a 26-month high of 51.4 in August, up from 50.3 in July, London-based financial information services company Markit said on 9 September. This was also the second consecutive month for eurozone manufacturing activity to be in expansion following 23 of contraction. An index figure below 50 indicates that Eurozone manufacturing is contracting, and above 50 that it is expanding.

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