Chemicals, Maritime & Shipping, Aromatics

January 03, 2025

Platts proposes new Red Sea-East China liquid aromatics freight assessment

Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, proposes to launch a new liquid chemical freight assessment from the Middle East basis the Red Sea to East China for 5-7-kt and 10-12-kt cargoes, along with other changes to existing Asia liquid aromatics freight assessments, effective Feb. 14, 2025.

Details of the proposed assessment are as follows:

Product Liquid Aromatics Freight
Route Middle East basis Red Sea to East China
Ports

Red Sea : Yanbu, Rabigh

East China : Zhangjiagang, Shanghai, Jiangyin,

Nantong, Ningbo, Nanjing, Zhenjiang
Cargo size 5-7 kt
10-12 kt
UOM $/mt

The existing Middle East-East China assessments will continue to reflect liquid aromatics freight from the Middle East basis Arabian Gulf to East China.

Platts also proposes to rename ex-Middle East liquid aromatics freight assessments to Middle East basis Arabian Gulf.

The proposed changes are in line with a two-tier market structure observed in freight from the Red Sea to East China and Arabian Gulf to East China following higher shipping costs seen for transit through Bab al-Mandab strait.

Current Route Proposed Route Cargo Size
Middle East-Taiwan Middle East basis Arabian Gulf-Taiwan 10-12 kt
Middle East-India Middle East basis Arabian Gulf-India 2-3 kt
Middle East-Southeast Asia Middle East basis Arabian Gulf-Southeast Asia 5-7 kt
Middle East-Southeast Asia Middle East basis Arabian Gulf-Southeast Asia 10-12 kt
Middle East-East China Middle East basis Arabian Gulf-East China 5-7 kt
Middle East-India Middle East basis Arabian Gulf-India 10-12 kt
Middle East-East China Middle East basis Arabian Gulf-East China 10-12 kt
India-Middle East India-Middle East basis Arabian Gulf 5-7 kt

Ports in the Arabian Gulf would include Al Jubail (Saudi Arabia), Messai'eed (Qatar), Kuwait (Kuwait), Sohar (Oman) and Jebel Ali (UAE), while those in the Red Sea would include Yanbu and Rabigh (Saudi Arabia).

The assessments will follow the Platts India publication calendar, taking into consideration price information gathered up to the close of the assessment process at 4:30 pm Singapore time .

Platts assesses spot market rates for the chartering of IMO II and III grade chemical tankers for the transportation of category Y and Z chemical cargoes, which include products such as aromatics, solvents and MTBE. Liquid chemical freight assessments are typically based on epoxy-coated or stainless steel purpose-built tankers.

The assessments will appear on PCA 643, 644 and Asia PetrochemicalScan and on Platts Connect.

The route notes published on PCA0643 and PCA0644 referencing the origin and destination ports will be discontinued. Details of ports considered in the assessments will be available in the Specifications Guide Global Freight.

Please send all comments, feedback and questions to petchems@spglobal.com and pricegroup@spglobal.com by Jan. 14, 2025.

For written comments, please provide a clear indication if they are not intended for publication by Platts for public viewing.

Platts will consider all comments received and will make comments not marked as confidential available upon request.