Asia PX falls on soft PTA prices, worries over eurozone debt crisis

20 October 2011 04:29  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS)--Asia paraxylene (PX) prices are declining because of the soft prices of downstream purified terephthalic acid (PTA) and continued concerns over the eurozone debt crisis, market sources said on Thursday.

The PX prices have dropped by at least $90/tonne (€66/tonne) since 17 October with offers of November shipments heard at $1,540/tonne CFR (cost & freight) Taiwan and/or China Main Port (CMP), according to data from ICIS.

There were few bids heard from end-users as most are experiencing poor production margins.

The benchmark prices of PTA were assessed at $1,145-1,180/tonne CFR CMP on 19 October, which is $50-55/tonne lower than that on 14 October, the data showed.

The offers of PX are lower because a possible halt of the trading of PTA futures on the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange as at 10:10 hours Singapore time (02:10 GMT), market sources said.

As at 10:10 Singapore time, the PTA contract for delivery in January dropped by 5.6%.

The Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange will halt trading if the contract falls below or rises to 6% or more in a single session, the sources said.

($1 = €0.73)

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By: Bohan Loh
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