Discussions for the December paraxylene Asian contract price ended for the third straight month without a major settlement, market participants confirmed Friday.
The gap between the highest bids and the lowest remaining offers was $40/mt, at $950/mt CFR Asia against $990/mt CFR, from an initial gap of $920/mt against $1,100/mt CFR.
Three of the five PX ACP sellers kept their offers above $1,000/mt, while Japan's JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy and South Korea's S-Oil improved their final offers to $990/mt CFR.
The term contract prices in Asia use a discount to the average of 50% of the Asian CP value and 50% of the monthly Platts CFR Taiwan/China spot marker average as the benchmark to price their cargoes. In the event of a non-settlement, the formula reverts to 100% spot pricing.
The last major settlement for PX ACP was at $1,340/mt CFR Asia in September.
There are five PX ACP sellers in Asia: Japan's JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy and Idemitsu Kosan, South Korea's S-Oil and SK Global Chemical, and ExxonMobil.
Typically there have been seven ACP buyers: BP, Taiwan's Capco and Oriental Petrochemical (Taiwan) Corp., Japan's Mitsui Chemicals and Mitsubishi Chemical, and China's Yisheng Petrochemical and Jiangsu Shenghong Chemical Fiber Co.
Asian spot PX was last assessed at $1,003/mt CFR Taiwan/China Friday, up $3.67/mt on the day.
