In the just concluded week, Asian benzene trends received support from firm styrene market and also due to increased demand of downstream factories in the Middle East.
Downstream factories in Middle East are forced to seek Asian benzene cargoes, because one major manufacturer in Iran indefinitely shut down its two aromatic plants in the previous week, mainly due to raw material supply constraints, leading to reduced supply.
For this reason, benzene supply in Southeast Asia has become more balanced than in the last few weeks. Manufacturers in Southeast Asia say that about 15,000 tons of benzene may be shipped to the Middle East in September and October.
Asian benzene market was also supported by downstream styrene industry, strong demand from downstream styrene is expected to maintain from late September to the holiday period before the end of the year.
On Friday, styrene price stabilized at US $1130-1140 / ton (CFR China). Demand from Phenol and other downstream industries were also stable. Asian caprolactam prices rose by $20 to $2570-2600 / ton (CFR Northeast Asia).
In the Northeast Asia market, activity was visible for most of the trading days. It was reported that transaction price of November cargo was quoted at between $845-865 / ton (FOB Korea), during the reported week.
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.jpg?tr=w-120,h-60,c-at_max,cm-pad_resize,bg-ffffff "UBM China (Shanghai)")
-Ltd..jpg?tr=w-120,h-60,c-at_max,cm-pad_resize,bg-ffffff "Thermore (Far East) Ltd.")
