Italy's Polimeri expects to return to the European toluene spot market in "late June," a company source confirmed Tuesday morning.
Some Northwest European market sources had said that Polimeri had been seen selling a 3,000 mt spot parcel in the current market, but this was denied by the company source, who confirmed that "for the moment we are out of the toluene market."
But the source said that Polimeri had stopped running its toluene disproportionation (TDP) unit in Priolo, Italy, following the "conclusion of a TDP campaign" to coincide with a scheduled turnaround at Polimeri's Sarroch aromatics unit, which is fed by the raw materials from the Priolo TDP unit.
This will lead to a build up of toluene stocks in Priolo, which will see Polimeri return to the spot market in "late June."
The 100,000 mt/yr Sarroch aromatics unit went into a six week scheduled shutdown mid-April and is still on schedule to restart at the end of May.
The source said that a restart of the Priolo TDP unit when Sarroch returns would be more dependent on economics surrounding benzene, which is produced by a TDP unit along with xylenes.
"We will look at our benzene balance and decide whether it is better to produce benzene ourselves or buy," the source said. "If its economical to start up again in late June or July then we will. Otherwise we will sell our toluene and buy benzene."
