Asian benzene fell by US$13.50/mt or 1.3% day on day to US$1000.50/mt FOB Korea June 19, on the back of lower crude and US benzene prices, as per Platts. Since downstream demand across the region is dismal, traders will base their trades on crude and regional benzene prices.
August ICE Brent crude futures fell $2.75/barrel or 2.8% day on day to US$94.6/blb in Asia on June 19. Benzene activity in the Asian trading day was focused on September. In the US, benzene was assessed on June 18 at US$1261.78/mt FOB USG. In Europe, the price June 18 was assessed at US$1240/mt CIF ARA.
The FOB Korea toluene marker was assessed at US$994.50/mt June 19, down US$14/mt from the day before amid falling crude and naphtha prices. FOB Korea toluene discussions held steady during the day despite falling crude, on short covering, market participants said. However, offers came down in the afternoon. In market news, the open arbitrage from Asia to the US Gulf for toluene has started to attract some interest, market sources said. Two traders were heard to be shipping a combined 18,000 mt of toluene from South Korea to the US Gulf on a vessel loading June 19. The movement comes despite concern over the backwardation in US Gulf toluene price. Asian traders had said earlier they were not interested in working the arbitrage due to uncertainty over forward prices in a thin US Gulf market.
Market participants stayed on the sidelines amid falling crude and PX prices. The forward curve structure for the back month was kept flat as industry watchers were unsure if it would flip to backwardation or contango. Given the weakness in Asia and the backwardated PX structure, MX could in effect mirror PX. But given the thin liquidity, industry watchers were unable to clearly define which way prices would turn in the back month. Asian paraxylene dived by ten dollars day on day on June 19 after three consecutive days of gains. It settled at US$1273/mt CFR Taiwan/China, losing momentum as crude prices faltered and downstream purified terephthalic acid failed to make headway despite PX prices surging over the last few days. Downstream, purified terephthalic acid fell by US$9 June 19 to close at US$941/mt CFR China. Offers for Taiwan origin cargoes were heard at US$950/mt CFR, while South Korean origin PTA, which carries a minimum antidumping duty of 2%, was heard at US$930/mt CFR China.
Asian styrene monomer fell by US$12/mt day on day to US$1260/mt FOB Korea June 19 for H1 August, tracking lower crude oil and doubts about the outlook for the eurozone, despite a positive election result in Greece over the weekend. A trader said offers for July and August would be no lower than US$1270/mt FOB Korea at the moment. |
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