Asian benzene rose by six dollars (0.5%) day on day to US$1150.50/mt FOB Korea amid short covering activity and firmer crude oil prices as per Platts. In the US, October benzene remained unchanged overnight Monday at 400 cents/gal (US$1197.20/mt) FOB USG. The prompt US benzene price was assessed on Monday at US$1297/mt FOB USG. Meanwhile, sources forecast benzene downstream demand would continue to remain weak for the rest of the year.
Asian paraxylene was assessed at US$1460.50/mt CFR Taiwan/China Tuesday, up by five dollars from Monday. Trading activity remained limited Tuesday due to a lack of market participants amid summer holiday season. Market sources said the upside of the Asian PX market was capped by the looming startup of new PX capacity in China. China's Tenglong Aromatics plans to start test runs at its 800,000 tpa PX plant in Fujian province in October. If the test runs go as planned, the plant will begin commercial operations in December. A bearish downstream purified terephthalic acid market also pressured the Asian PX market. The CFR China PTA price was assessed at US$1016/mt Tuesday, down US$8/mt from Monday. The US PX price fell to US$1395/mt FOB USG Monday. In Europe, PX was assessed at $1,340/mt FOB ARA.
The Asian styrene monomer market on Tuesday extended a slide that began August 8 on the back of weak demand. Demand from downstream markets was seen as weak, with many end-users not interested in buying any spot SM at present. A broker said a sharp price increase in the first week of August was more the result of traders being short on SM than firm downstream demand. The H2 September price fell by seven dollars to US$1405/mt FOB Korea. The prompt US styrene price was assessed Monday at US$1460/mt FOB USG. The European price for September was assessed at US$1530/mt FOB Rdam.
21-Aug-12 
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