South Korea's HC Petrochem will likely be seeking 120,000-210,000 mt/year of isomer-grade mixed xylenes from the spot market for its new aromatics plant at Daesan, a company official said this week.
HC Petrochem may enter the spot market next month seeking the isomer-MX for delivery from early next year, in line with the start of commercial operations at the plant, he said.
The company will likely be procuring 70-80% of its isomer-MX requirement for the plant from Cosmo Oil, with 20-30% from the spot market, he added. HC Petrochem is a 50:50 joint venture between Hyundai Oilbank and Cosmo Oil.
The plant's total isomer-MX requirement is estimated at 600,000-700,000 mt/year, to be used as feedstock to produce paraxylene.
"If [HC] buys their shortfall of isomer-MX from the spot market, the prices of isomer-MX are likely to be on the upswing, in line with [the upswing expected ahead of] Dragon Aromatics' commercial operations [planned for] December," a South Korean trader said.
The plant will be able to produce 800,000 mt/year of paraxylene, 115,000 mt/year of benzene and an unspecified volume of byproducts.
"The mechanical completion of [HC Petrochem's] plant will be next month and the test run is likely to start one or two months later," the company official added.
