Styron Europe : Key Productivity Indicators Confirm Improved Price Visibility

Styron Europe GmbH announced today that it has considerably increased productivity during the month of May by settling its PS EMEA monthly negotiated business within the first 10 days. This improvement was confirmed by measured key productivity indicators for the month of May. Styron’s appeal, originally proposed on March 16 to bring the European Polystyrene pricing process consistent with other regions and polymers for efficiency reasons, has begun to reap the benefits.

Today, Styron confirms that the following key productivity indicators were achieved following the early contract pricing settlement for polystyrene in EMEA in the month of May:
- A 50% decrease in the number of invoice adjustments in May in comparison with the period January until March 2012
- A 60% decrease in the value of adjustments in May in comparison with the previous sixteen months

"Following our proposal for an improved pricing process for polystyrene, we have started to implement this and settled PS prices for our EMEA business early in the month for the month of May and June. As one could expect, we already see the benefits of this new process within our organization and we hope that our customers are also seeing the benefits of enhanced clarity and consistency in PS pricing,” said Paul Moyer, Styron's Vice President and General Manager for Plastics. “However, regardless of the undeniable benefits generated, we cannot make this change unilaterally. That’s why we encourage everyone in this industry to maintain the same practice in the coming months and drive increased productivity in the PS industry,” concluded Moyer.

Styron’s key customers also reported significant benefits and improvements. One key customer confirmed these as follows: “A clear advantage we see is to have clarity on the purchasing price earlier in the month and as a result, the lower amount of invoice corrections we have to deal with.”

On March 16, Styron made an appeal for an improved process to settle contract pricing for polystyrene at the beginning of the month, effective as of May. In mid-April more than 20 of Styron’s key customers had already endorsed the proposal to change the timing to the beginning of the month. In May, the company managed to settle 90% of Styron’s PS EMEA monthly negotiated business according to these new terms. A similar result was achieved in the month of June.

Source: Styron Europe