Chemicals, Solvents & Intermediates

January 31, 2025

Platts to change CFR India solvent MX laycan and launch differential

Platts, a part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, will change the delivery laycan of its CFR India solvent mixed xylenes assessment and start assessing its differential to the FOB Korea marker, effective Feb. 28, 2025.

Platts first proposed the change in delivery laycan and introduction of the differential on Jan. 16, 2025 in a subscriber note available here.

Laycan change

Platts will 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, this assessment reflects deliveries 20-40 days forward.

This change aims to align the assessment delivery laycan with a typical practice in the CFR India spot market.

Platts has observed that 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 South 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 will also start assessing a weekly cash differential, measuring a premium or discount of the CFR India Solvent MX against the FOB Korea assessment, to reflect the market's shift towards this pricing approach.

The new differential assessment and symbols are as follows :

Symbol Description
SMCIW04 Solvent-MX CFR India vs FOB Korea Cash Differential $/mt
SMCIM03 Solvent-MX CFR India vs FOB Korea Cash Differential MAvg $/mt

The differential assessment would be published in the Asia Petrochemicalscan, SolventsWire, Platts Connect and on Petrochemical Alert (PCA) pages 412 and 416.

Platts will 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, MAvg: PHAUY03).

The new Solvent-MX CFR India against the FOB Korea Cash Differential assessment will follow the India publication schedule, while the publication of the existing outright value would follow both India and Singapore publication schedules, meaning that it would not be published on the days when one or both countries have a public holiday.

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

Timing 40-60 days from 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/2 pm India time on Friday.

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

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

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.