Asian benzene rose $6/mt Monday from last Friday to $1,199/mt FOB Korea, shown in red below, as prices in the US and Europe surged. "Downstream markets for [Asian] benzene are really bad, but prices rose because Asian cargoes to the US were heard to be delayed," a South Korean trader said.
"European sellers were also heard to have cancelled their orders to the US, causing the rise in US benzene prices," the trader added. Front month ICE Brent crude futures fell $0.47/barrel day on day to $118.16/b at 4:30 pm Singapore time (0830 GMT) April 23.
Benzene activity in the Asian trading day was focused on June and July cargoes. A July cargo was transacted at $1,199/mt FOB Korea from Interchem to Raystar.
In other news, Japan's largest refiner, JX Nippon Oil & Energy, has settled its May Asia Contract Price for benzene at $1,220/mt CFR, up $30/mt or 2.5% from its April settlement of $1,190/mt CFR, a company source said April 23. "The ACP was raised as market prices are higher now," the source added.
In the US, benzene climbed to $1,267/mt FOB USG. European benzene climbed $8/mt Friday to $1,236/mt CIF ARA. (See chart 1)
The FOB Korea toluene marker was assessed at $1,214/mt April 23, up $3/mt from April 20 despite lower crude as downstream benzene rose. Discussions were thin April 23 but a July cargo was bid up in the morning while June was stable, suggesting a widening contango structure at the back end of the forward curve.
As a result, the June/July spread was assessed at $2/mt April 23, from $1/mt April 20. At latest prices, the FOB Korea-FOB US Gulf spread has narrowed further to $3.52/mt, from $6.52/mt April 20. The US toluene price was assessed April 19 at $1,216/mt FOB USG.
