The US-Israel military strikes on Iran now nearing a fourth week have spilled openly into attacks on critical energy infrastructure in Iran and neighbouring Persian Gulf countries, apparently by miscalculation, sparking price surges across oil, petroleum products, petrochemicals and gas and LNG.
This has a ripple effect in the benzene chain, which simultaneously affected cumene market. Supply side pressure for cumene stemmed from constrained feedstocks and low available inventories. Tightening benzene and rising naphtha/crude costs raised cumene production economics, while polymer-grade propylene availability was squeezed after repeated failed restarts at Enterprise’s Mont Belvieu PDH unit — a facility with *.** billion lb/year capacity — which reduced propylene flows and pressured spot barrels. Inventories remained lean and suppliers prioritized contracted deliveries, leaving little flexibility for spot cumene sales; the **-week moving average stood at $***.**/MT, per ChemAnalyst data, underscoring persistent upward pressure on replacement costs.
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