Aromatics

Benzene prices on an FOB Korea basis and paraxylene (PX) prices on a CFR Northeast Asia basis strengthened in the first half of the week but after that, prices softened along with a fall in crude prices and weak demand. For benzene, supply was partially limited as operation rates of ethylene facilities were falling. But this was not pushing up benzene prices. For PX, the demand season for polyester fibers was over and this was also a bearish factor.

Olefins

In the Northeast Asia ethylene market, an ethylene facility owned by Mitsui Chemicals at its Osaka plant was reportedly shut down due to troubles. In China, Shanghai Petrochemical would restart one of its two ethylene facilities in second-half November but it would reportedly prolong maintenance of the other facility due to worsening profitability. Thus, troubles and productions cuts at ethylene facilities were observed. But as demand was also low, deals were not heard this week.