PETROCHEMICALS AND PRICING IN INDIA

Petrochemicals are chemicals obtained from petroleum by refining. The most common petrochemical classes are olefins and aromatics. Aromatics include benzene, toluene and xylene isomers. A Solvent is a liquid that dissolves a solute. Solvents are organic chemicals and form an important part of the Indian petrochemical industry. The prices of derivatives like chemicals and solvents are vulnerable to crude price volatility. The petrochemical industry is strictly de-regulated, governed by the demand and supply forces, which results in volatility in market pricing.

With reference to recent publication, Solvents and chemical prices are little changed during the last week across the major ports in India. Under Aromatics category, Benzene, c9 and c10 solvent prices remained unchanged during the last week at Rs.54, Rs.70 and Rs.55 per kg respectively after Rs.1 of uptick in Benzene price last Tuesday. The CFR price of Benzene was stable at Rs725 per mt during the entire week. Toluene prices were slipped by Rs.2 per kg to Rs.60 in Mumbai market while CFR price of toluene was down by Rs.5 to Rs.690 per Mt during the week.  Methanol prices were not changed at Rs.40 per ltr in Mumbai market whereas CFR price was changed Rs.1 up to Rs.243 per Ton. Under Chemicals category, Hexene prices were traded low by Rs.1 to Rs.56 per Kg on Oct 1st left the remaining week unchanged while MTO traded at Rs.61 during the entire week.