Benzene Market Fell into A Dilemma
In March, China’s benzene price soared to RMB 9,000/mt again boosted by strong crude oil. Benzene prices paced an N-shaped trend on the whole, with the monthly highest point hitting RMB 9,000/mt, up RMB 1,849/mt or 25.86% Y-O-Y. However, the price spread between styrene and benzene hovered at RMB 1,200-1,400/mt, down RMB 348-548/mt or 19.91%-31.35% Y-O-Y.
In March, the price spread between China’s domestic price and foreign benzene price hit the monthly highest point of RMB 500/mt. Near the end of the month, the price spread began to narrow, and it has fall below RMB 100/mt currently, which is close to the arbitrage opening point.
In February 2022, the import volume of benzene in China was about 233.2kt, and the total import volume in 2022 was 584.89kt. The average import price was $1,013.96/mt. The import volume in March is expected to increase compared with that in February, and the subsequent arrival will gradually increase, adding supply pressure to the market.
On March 23, the trade inventory of benzene at East China ports was 130kt, up 1kt or 0.78% from that on March 16. Recently, the automobile transportation efficiency in the market was low. The arrival of goods at the main port increased one after another, and the inventory at the main port may increase slightly in the later stage.
At present, the downstream styrene and CPL producers are in loss, with heavy negative feedback on the benzene market. At present, the transportation is inconvenient, and the transportation of finished products is difficult. Meanwhile, the downstream users are not active in replenishing feedstock. Most of them are purchased on a need-to basis, which puts pressure on the benzene market.
The weekly average operating rate of oil-based benzene market was 80.41% this week, down 2.64 percentage points from last week. Sinopec Yangzi Petrochemical took 2-month maintenance since March 20.
Styrene: The operating rate of styrene producers averaged 75.46% this week, down 0.83 percentage points from last week. No units were newly shut down or restarted this week. A total of 10 enterprises were involved in turnaround, affecting the output of 59.42kt or so. The styrene output totaled 261.9kt this week. Next week, the styrene output is expected to be around 272.6kt.
Phenol: The operating rate of phenol industry was 94%, unchanged from last week. China’s phenol and acetone units ran steadily this week.
Aniline: The operating rate of aniline industry was 76.35% this week. The aniline unit at Dongying Jinling New Material was restarted last weekend. Dongying Huatai Chemical postponed its maintenance from March 22 to end-March.
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