Asia benzene, PX up as crude hits nine-month high

19 June 2007 05:00  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--Asia’s benzene and paraxylene (PX) values shot up on Tuesday in line with a nine-month high for crude futures, as well as firm US aromatics values seen overnight, buyers and sellers said.

There was, however, limited impact on toluene and styrene values.

Toluene was largely stable from Monday’s closing levels at $850-865/tonne (free on board) FOB Korea.

A toluene offer for second-half July at $875/tonne met with a bid at $850/tonne on Tuesday.

Styrene buy-sell indications for any-August parcels were heard at $1,300-1,340/tonne while selling indications for second-half July cargoes were mentioned around $1,360/tonne FOB Korea.

The impact of the high crude prices, however, was seen mostly in the benzene and PX markets.

A benzene bid heard at $1,040/tonne FOB Korea for a big-berth any-August cargo was $20-25/tonne higher than the bids cited on Monday afternoon, but no offer was heard.

Traders and producers of benzene said that the uptrend was due to the upswing seen in the US aromatics and energy values on Monday evening.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil for July delivery closed at $69.09/bbl on the NYMEX on Monday, up by $1.09/bbl in response to new attacks by militants on Nigerian oilfields and threats of a potential oil workers’ strike in Nigeria later this week and in Brazil in early July.

Meanwhile, US benzene bids and offers for June and July were heard at $3.62-3.78/gal FOB Houston-Texas City (HTC), in a wider range than Friday’s level at $3.63-3.65/gal.

Another aromatic which rose was PX, which saw discussion levels hitting $1,190-1,200/tonne CFR Taiwan and/or China for July loading.

This was in sharp contrast from last week’s lowest point of $1,135/tonne CFR Taiwan and in line with the recovery started since last Friday.

“Improved sentiment in the downstream PTA sector also helped matters,” said a PX trader in Singapore.

PTA is purified terephthalic acid, the main derivative of PX.

Salmon Aidan Lee and Clive Ong contributed to this story.

By: Mahua Chakravarty
+65 6780 4359

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