Americas: US mixed xylenes leaps 6.50 cents/gal on Asia's bull run

USG mixed xylenes were up 6.50 cents/gal ($20/mt) Wednesday, following Asia's $33/mt (11 cents/gal) surge for H1 December on an FOB Korea basis.

MX was bid at 310 cents/gal in early US trading against an offer at 320 cents/gal. The H1 December FOB Korea assessment closed at $1,017/mt. Freight from the US Gulf Coast for a 5kt parcel was roughly $55/mt.

Meanwhile sources talked an MX deal done at 310 cents/gal FOB USG. After freight, the landed price would be around $994/mt, leaving about $23/mt in profit, based on Wednesday's Far East assessment.

Sources cited a slew of Far East production outages, plus a lack of imports from Iran, as reasons for the movement. Downstream PTA, polyester fiber and PET demand in Asia was also reportedly strong. These factors pushed open a US-Asia arbitrage on xylenes.

Toluene though continued to move slowly, behind MX.

October nitration grade was heard done at 282 cents/gal, but it could not be confirmed. The bid/offer ranges were talked at 280-290 cents/gal.

Assuming a toluene level at 282 cents/gal and MX at 315 cent/gal, this result in a 33-cent premium for xylenes.

In October 2009, MX average a 10-cent discount relative to toluene, according to Platts data. Two years ago during the month of October in 2008, toluene and xylenes were virtually flat.

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