The European price for contractual benzene supplies in March has been fully settled at Eur937/mt ($992/mt) CIF ARA, down Eur46/mt, negotiating parties confirmed Wednesday.
The settlement is in line with the S&P Global Platts month-ahead contract price indicator, which showed Tuesday a likely $54/mt drop from the February price.
The new settlement is around $30/mt above current spot prices, suggesting the market could have an upside later in March.
March spot parcels were assessed at $971/mt CIF ARA Tuesday, but heard offered at $965/mt Wednesday. The spot market in Europe has therefore shed around 10.5% in value since mid-February.
The current downtrend is mainly driven by the sentiment in other regions, where several benzene derivative facilities are set to go into maintenance, according to sources.
Sources said the benzene supply in Europe remains tight, which is exemplified by the remaining strength of the benzene extraction margins.
Benzene's premium over feedstock naphtha is $487.25/mt, or around twice as much as required to break even. On-purpose production of benzene (through hydrodelkylation of toluene) also remains profitable, with benzene's premium over toluene at $301/mt.
March fundamentals in the region are likely to tighten further with several cracker turnarounds scheduled to start in the next few weeks, and with the Trinseo's styrene plant in Terneuzen, the Netherlands, scheduled to come back online March 10-13.
