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NWE mixed xylene price over $800/mt, May premium to gasoline above $100/mt

London — Northwest European mixed xylene prices have broken above the $800/mt markto the highest this year, while the MX May premium over Eurobob gasoline hashit three figures.

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This was on increases in the energy complex and firmer bids in the PlattsMarket on Close window.

The 5-30 days forward price of MX rose $13 to $808/mt CIF ARA Tuesday.

The MX May premium over Eurobob was assessed at $101/mt Tuesday, up from$99/mt the previous day, S&P Global Platts data showed.

An outstanding MX bid for May 15-25 delivery at a $100/mt premium wasseen from Total in the Platts MOC window, although no spot selling interestwas evident.

But demand fundamentals were weak for prompt dates as a force majeureremains in place at BP's purified terephthalic acid plant in Geel, Belgium.This dampened MX buy interest for paraxylene extraction despite peak demandseason in the downstream bottled beverages sector.

Recent bullishness in the energy complex and slow demand from solventusers also weighed on the appetite for spot procurement of MX fromdistributors. Some distributors were also concerned demand could weakenfurther as a result of increases in CIF ARA prices.

Similarly, the arbitrage from Europe to the US was hard to work, despiteit being open on paper.

The FOB USG May price was last assessed Tuesday at 282 cents/gal($854.46/mt), which put Europe at a discount of $46.46/mt. While this wassufficient to cover Europe-US freight of around $40/mt, the specifications inthe US were stringent for MX, which makes European material less suitable forbuyers in that region.

US buyers also usually required steep discounts to the US domestic priceto account for demurrage risk associated with imports of transatlanticparcels. This kept European traders wary and demand limited.

Gasoline blending interest for MX has also remained slow in recentweeks with ample supplies of reformate and toluene-xylenes streams, whichoffered lower cost per RON values.

The blend value of MX was heard at weak levels of around $40-$50/mtpremiums, which did not prove attractive to sellers.

--Sam Hashmi, sam.hashmi@spglobal.com

--Edited by Jeremy Lovell, jeremy.lovell@spglobal.com