South Korea's S-Oil Nominated Its Paraxylene Asia Contract Price for March at $1,750/mt

South Korea's S-Oil nominated its paraxylene Asia Contract Price for March at $1,750/mt, up $65/mt from its February settlement, sources close to the negotiations said Monday. 

There are four ACP sellers in Asia -- ExxonMobil, Idemitsu Kosan, JX Nippon Oil and Energy and S-Oil. ExxonMobil also nominated its March PX ACP at $1,750/mt CFR, up $65/mt from its February settlement. 

Last week, Idemitsu nominated its March PX ACP at $1,800/mt and JX at $1,740/mt CFR. 

ExxonMobil, JX and S-Oil settled their February PX ACPs at $1,685/mt CFR, while Idemitsu Kosan did not settle its February PX ACP. 

The nomination price of $1,740-1,750/mt CFR by the three ACP sellers was lower end of the market's expectation of $1,750-1,770/mt CFR, while Idemitsu's nomination was much higher than the expectation range. Industry sources Idemitsu would likely revise to the mid-$1,700s/mt CFR level soon. 

"After Idemitsu's nomination on Wednesday, spot PX market sentiment became weak. Idemitsu needs to reflect that weakness to the nomination," said an industry source. 

According to Platts' data, the CFR Taiwan/China PX price was assessed at $1,699.50/mt last Friday, down $13/mt from last Wednesday. 

So far, no counter bids were heard from ACP buyers but industry sources are expecting the counter bids to be in the mid-$1,600s/mt CFR. 

There are six ACP buyers: BP, Taiwan's Capco, Oriental Petrochemical (Taiwan) Corp., Japan's Mitsui Chemicals and Mitsubishi Chemical, and China's Yisheng Petrochemical. 

"Naphtha feedstock prices are quite high. Even though the outlook of downstream purified terephthalic acid is gloomy, the end-users can not ask lower settlement than February," said another industry source. "It seems they are targeting rollover from February at least." 

According to Platts' data, the CFR Japan naphtha price averaged at $1,004.13/mt so far in February, up $44.77/mt, or 4.6% from January. The CFR China PTA price averaged at $1,197/mt so far in February, up $6/mt from January. The Asian PTA market has been bearish after the Lunar New Year holidays, pressured by high inventories and weak downstream polyester.