NE Asia BPA offers to China surge on benzene price spike

SINGAPORE (ICIS)–Offers for bisphenol A (BPA) from northeast Asia to China surged this week following a rapid increase in prices of feedstock benzene, market sources said on Friday.

Sellers are now quoting around $1,150/tonne CFR (cost and freight) China, up from around $1,100/tonne CFR China levels at the start of the week, they said.

Sharp price increases in the domestic Chinese BPA market further fuelled the bullish sentiment, a Chinese trader said.

The downstream epoxy resins market in China continued to generate reasonable sales in spite of higher prices. Under such conditions, it would be easy to implement price hikes for feedstock BPA, market players said.

However, concluding deals on a US dollar basis became difficult after the sharp price increase, another trader said.

Buyers are cautious about the high BPA prices.

“Nobody wants to be stuck with higher-priced cargoes if prices suddenly fall,” a third trader said.

Top photo: Bisphenol A (BPA) is used in the production of polycarbonate (PC), which goes into plastic water bottles. (Source: Design Pics Inc/REX/Shutterstock)