Paraxylene, benzene prices rise in Asia after China plant explosion

07-Apr-15

Asian paraxylene and benzene prices spiked on April 7, following the overnight explosion at the Dragon Aromatics plant in China, Platts data showed. PX prices rose 5.4% (US$45/mt) to US$880/mt on a CFR Taiwan/China basis, while FOB Korea benzene spiked 4.8% (US$37/mt) to US$811/mt. The plant at Zhangzhou has a nameplate production capacity of 1.6 mln tpa of paraxylene and 240,000 tpa of benzene. Almost all output is sold to Xianglu Petrochemical, a downstream purified terephthalic acid maker. Dragon Aromatics will buy benzene from the spot market to fulfill its contractual obligations, the source from the company said. The company was considering buying PX, too, from the spot market, although this depended on whether its main offtaker, Xianglu Petrochemical, required as much. Traders based in Singapore and South Korea attributed the jump in aromatics prices to the fire at the plant, which was still raging Tuesday morning. They added that they expected prices to rise further in the course of the day.