Taiwan’s CPC Corp seeks 10,000t spot PX for September delivery

06 August 2010 08:50  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS)--Taiwan’s state-owned CPC Corp has issued a tender to buy 10,000 tonnes of spot paraxylene (PX) for September delivery, a company source said on Friday.

The tender would close on 11 August, with offers to stay valid to the next day, the source added.

In its last tender, CPC bought 15,000 tonnes of August-delivery spot PX from Hazel Mercantile, Oman Trading International and Marubeni Corp on a 50:50 basis between the Asia Contract Price (ACP) and the spot average of published CFR (cost & freight) Taiwan prices, minus discounts of $12–20/tonne (€9–15/tonne).

CPC has for the past two months been actively purchasing spot PX cargoes within the Asian market, due to poor prevailing margins between isomer-grade xylene (IX) and PX, market players said.

The company would subsequently supply the purchased spot parcels to contract-based domestic customers such as China American Petrochemical Co (CAPCO), Oriental Petrochemical Taiwan Corp (OPTC), according to players.

The IX/PX spread was hovering at around $120/tonne on mid-day Friday, below the $150–180/tonne range that IX-based PX makers typically require to break even and cover operational costs, ICIS data showed.

CPC had earlier announced plans to restart its 250,000 tonne/year No 2 PX unit in mid-July. The Kaohsiung-based facility had been shut for a maintenance turnaround since early May.

However, the company ultimately decided to keep the unit idle until 10 September due to poor margins, said the company source.

($1 = €0.76)

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By: Bohan Loh
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