Benzene supply has been splendid in the year 2018. Oversupply has put pressure on the international prices in Asian market. There has been many new start-ups in Asia and Middle East adding to the existing capacities. The god this is that majority of new downstream capacities of key downstream styrene monomer (SM) are also planned to come onstream from 2020 and beyond. Based on the current start-up schedule, it appears that benzene supply in Asia and the Middle East will increase by 3.6m tonnes in 2019, while the total increase for SM is expected to be around 2.2m tonne
