South Korea's benzene exports to China rebounded 11,848 mt or 188.3% month on month to 18,139 mt in July, data released Thursday by the Korea Customs Service showed.
The surge was due to the narrowing price gap between domestic and imported benzene cargoes in China and the shutdown of a major aromatics plant in the country for turnaround.
Asian benzene prices averaged $1,220.59/mt FOB Korea in July, down $42.14/mt or 3.3% from June, Platts data showed.
State-owned China Petroleum and Chemical Corp., or Sinopec, maintained its ex-works offer price for benzene in East China at Yuan 8,900/mt ($1,209/mt) over July, unchanged from May 24.
The price gap between domestic and imported cargoes in China averaged $11.59/mt in July, narrowing from $52.67/mt in June, tempting Chinese buyers to start importing benzene.
Sinopec shut its aromatics plant in Yangzi mid-July for turnaround, Platts reported earlier. The plant is able to produce 400,000 mt/year of benzene, 850,000 mt/year of paraxylene and 260,000 mt/year of orthoxylene.
