Taiwan’s TSRC plans to cut the operating rate of its synthetic rubber plant further from August amid negative margins, a company source said Thursday.
TSRC has a 60,000 mt/year butadiene-rubber plant and a 100,000 mt/year styrene-butadiene-rubber unit at Tashe in southern Kaohsiung. Currently, the company is running the BR plant at around 80% of capacity and the SBR plant at around 60% of capacity, the source said.
Asian rubber producers have been suffering from negative margins this year due to high butadiene feedstock costs. Asian SBR-butadiene spread is hovering around $180/mt. The typical breakeven spread is $550-600/mt.
