China Petroleum and Chemical Corp., or Sinopec, raised its ex-works butadiene offer price in East China to Yuan 10,500/mt, or $1,408/mt on an import parity basis, Friday, up Yuan 400/mt or about 4%, market sources said.
The state-run company last revised its price on April 20, raising by Yuan 200/mt to Yuan 10,100/mt.
The price increases come on tight domestic supply as local plants shut for maintenance.
For instance, Sinopec Zhenhai Refining & Chemical shut its naphtha-fed steam cracker in Zhenhai, Zhejiang province, on Wednesday for planned maintenance, sources close to the company said.
The cracker, which will be shut for about 40-45 days, is able to produce 1 million mt/year of ethylene, 550,000 mt/year of propylene and 180,000 mt/year of butadiene.
BASF-YPC shut its 130,000 mt/year butadiene extraction unit at Nanjing on April 19 for scheduled maintenance lasting about 24 days.
Asian supply is tight, especially after about 5,000 mt of South Korean origin butadiene was sold to the US for first-half May loading.
Source: Platts