Taiwan’s CPC buys 10,000t spot PX from Japanese traders

12 August 2010 10:49  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS)--Taiwan’s state-owned CPC Corp has bought by tender 10,000 tonnes of spot paraxylene (PX) for September delivery from a Japanese trader, a company source said on Thursday.

Both 5,000 tonne lots were purchased at a 50:50 basis between the Asia Contract Price (ACP) and the spot average of published CFR (cost & freight) Taiwan prices, minus discounts of $10–15/tonne (€8–12/tonne), he said.

The discounts were narrower as compared with CPC’s last purchase, when it bought 15,000 tonnes of August-delivery PX at discounts of $12–20/tonne, said market players.

The narrower discounts were due to the firmer sentiment in the region’s PX market, they added.

Spot PX prices had increased by $75/tonne over the past month, as some traders were covering their short positions, said the players.

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

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

($1 = €0.78)

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By: Bohan Loh
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