US benzene spot values recover on stronger crude, buying interest

HOUSTON (ICIS)–US spot benzene prices, which had softened in recent weeks on oversupply, recovered on Friday as buying interest from Europe increased and crude prices rallied.

Benzene spot values had declined in recent weeks, as high US prices during April and global outages in downstream styrene encouraged imports into the US.

The long supply, combined with declines in upstream crude oil values, pushed benzene spot prices down into the $2.20s/gal early in the week. Despite only slight gains in NYMEX WTI crude futures on Thursday, benzene spot prices were heard in the $2.40s/gal, as buying interest picked up from Europe.

One source said that 20,000-25,000 tonnes had been sold into the European market this week for June delivery.

A cargo of 5,000 tonnes of benzene from the US Gulf is scheduled for late May arrival in Spain.

On Friday, US spot benzene was assessed at $2.55-2.60/gal FOB (free on board), an average gain of 10 cents/gal over the previous week, after a more than $2/bbl gain in WTI crude future values.

Major US benzene producers include ExxonMobil, Flint Hills Resources, LyondellBasell, Marathon Petroleum, Shell and Phillips 66.