Japan's JX Nippon Oil & Energy has nominated its March paraxylene Asia Contract Price at $980/mt CFR, while South Korea's SK Global Chemical nominated its March PX ACP at $970/mt CFR, sources close to the respective companies said Wednesday.
The nominations are up from the major settlement in February at $900/mt CFR.
There are five PX ACP sellers in Asia: Japan's Idemitsu Kosan and JX Nippon Oil & Energy, ExxonMobil, and South Korea's S-Oil and SK Global Chemical.
Until the end of 2016, there were six PX ACP buyers: BP, Taiwan's Capco and Oriental Petrochemical (Taiwan) Corp., Japan's Mitsui Chemicals and Mitsubishi Chemical, and China's Yisheng Petrochemical.
China's Jiangsu Shenghong Chemical Fiber joined the PX ACP negotiations as a permanent participant on the buying side, beginning with the January 2017 contract, while Mitsubishi Chemical's participation as a permanent member remains uncertain, following the sale of the company's PTA plants in India and China last year, market sources said.
