Paraxylene prices continue to upsurge globally

Para-di-methyl benzene, commonly known as Paraxylene (PX), market has continued to grow since the start of the month. Prices of Paraxylene have shown increment for the 4th week in a row on the back of high demand fundamentals from downstream Dimethyl Terephthalate (DMT) and Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) industries. As a result, after a period of progress, Paraxylene prices in China were assessed at USD 1166 FOB Shanghai, while quotations in the United States for March were reported at USD 1282/MT FOB Texas.

The fate of aromatics and crude oil have been intertwined for a long time where the change in one will manifest in the change in the values of the other. Therefore, a continuous volatile trend of crude has been at the fulcrum and resulted in high prices of all key aromatics. Hence, it has affected the price of Paraxylene globally.

According to the sources, the production of Paraxylene in Japanese refineries has declined after an earthquake hit Japan. Indeed, it did not cause any impact on the market as paraxylene demand flourished with strong buying sentiments of cargoes from domestic as well as overseas markets. China Petroleum & Chemical (Sinopec) started normally with high operating rates. Nevertheless, the COVID-19 outbreak and lockdown in China brought bearish sentiments into the market. As ports were closed and trading activity was minimal, demand seemed to be unaffected as India relies heavily on imports from China and other Far East Asian countries for the supply of Paraxylene. Thus, the Indian Paraxylene prices were assessed at INR 147488 per MT Ex-Ahmedabad.

Ever so there is an anticipation of the shutdown of Sinopec’s Hainan refinery in Southern China from March-April 2022 on account of Planned maintenance, which may affect paraxylene production, thus causing inflation in the price trend. On the demand side, Paraxylene consumption is seen anchored in Asian and European countries, with downstream PET industries fortifying the demand over the past few weeks.

According to the ChemAnalyst database, “the price for Paraxylene may fluctuate in the global market with increased production activities to fulfil end-user demand and high operational rates from end-use industries.”