Northwest European spot paraxylene hit a five-year low Thursday on falling crude oil prices and a softer Asian market.
Paraxylene for spot delivery into ARA on an FOB basis was assessed at $780/mt, the lowest since October 2009, Platts data showed.
“All to do with crude, the question is where is the bottom of the market…PX will not keep falling if crude starts going up,” a source said.
The front month ICE Brent was pegged around $63.12/mt Friday morning.
Meanwhile, the availability of paraxylene on a spot basis remained tight. Market sources previously cited weak production economics, deterring producers from making product above their contractual commitments.
“I think that European producers are mostly looking into PX-MX spreads and they take MX as blend value…in their calculation, MX can either go to gasoline or to isomerization,” a second source said.
The wider the spread between the two the stronger the economics of using MX for PX production. The PX premium over the gasoline Eurobob FOB ARA barge market was seen at $223.50/mt Thursday, Platts data showed.
According to the second source, the current spread is narrow, incentivizing the use of MX for gasoline blending.
– Platts.com
