Chemicals, Solvents & Intermediates

January 16, 2025

Platts proposes to change CFR India solvent-MX laycan, assess differential

Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, proposes to change the delivery laycan of its CFR India solvent mixed xylene assessment and start assessing its differential to the FOB Korea marker, effective Feb. 28.

Laycan change

Platts proposes to change the delivery laycan for the CFR India solvent-MX assessment to reflect cargoes delivered 40-60 days forward from the day of the publication.

Currently, the assessment reflects deliveries 20-40 days forward.

The proposal aims to align the assessment delivery laycan with atypical practice in the CFR India spot market.

Platts has observed CFR India solvent-MX cargoes typically trade for loading during the following month, with the typical transit time for the cargo at 15-30 days from Korea, Thailand and Taiwan.

For example, for a trade done on Jan. 14, the shipment would be in the first half of February, that is Feb. 1-15, and the estimated delivery time at Indian ports would be between Feb. 23 and March 15, depending on the origin.

New differential

Platts proposes to start assessing a weekly cash differential, measuring a premium or discount of the CFR India solvent-MX versus the FOB Korean assessment, to reflect the market's shift toward this pricing approach.

Under the proposal, Platts would start deriving the existing outright CFR India value (Symbol: ASMXA04, MAvg: ASMXA03) based on this assessed differential and the same-day spot FOB Korea solvent-MX marker (Symbol: PHAUX04).

The new differential would be published in line with the India publication schedule, while the publication of the existing outright value would follow both India and Singapore publication schedules, implying that the outright CFR India value would not be published on the days when one or both the countries have a public holiday.

In all other aspects, the new differential assessment would mirror the specifications and terms of the existing outright assessment and will be as follows:

Timing 40-60 days from the date of publication
Basis and Location CFR India, basis Kandla and Mumbai
Cargo Size 1,000-2,000 mt
Credit Terms L/C 90 days
Quality Specification Solvent-MX with maximum non-aromatics content of 4%, conforming to international standards and equivalence. Solvent-MX with a lower or higher non-aromatics content than 4% will be normalized back to such a value.
Timestamp 4:30 pm Singapore time (0830 GMT) or 2 pm India time on Friday

The proposal refers to the assessments which are and would be published in the Asia Petrochemicalscan, SolventsWire, Platts Connect and on Petrochemical Alert (PCA) pages 412 and 416.

Please direct any questions or comments to petchems@spglobal.com with a copy to pricegroup@spglobal.com by Jan. 30.

For written comments, please provide a clear indication if comments 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.