"It has mainly been the blenders buying [from the spot market], but now
there's also a little bit of chemical demand," a chemicals trader source said:
"Maybe it's not economic to produce at current levels so they may want to buy
some tons from the spot market [to fill] contractual obligations," the trader
added.
A producer source said that reducing production and filling contractual
obligations partly from the spot market may make economic sense.
A third trader pointed out that the monthly contract price was currently
well above the gasoline blend value, so producers should be happy to fill
their contractual obligations via their own production.
The gasoline pool has been the main consumer for toluene output in recent
days, as benzene conversion margins have remained in negative territory since
last year. "To me the big question is why the big [toluene to benzene]
conversion units [in Europe] are still running. They must be losing money
constantly," the third source said.