The OX contract typically follows the 5211 MX contract settlement. The MX CP for September was concluded at 250 cents/gal, up 3 cents/gal from August. When the 5211 MX CP was settled on August 31, spot MX was assessed by Platts at 250 cents/gal.
From the first week of September spot MX began to increase slowly but by September 8 was assessed at 263 cents/gal due mainly to BP's reformate outage in Texas City, Texas. Early in the afternoon on September 9, spot MX was pegged at 267 cents/gal for September loading cargoes.
The sharp increase in MX made OX producers want to capture some of that increase in the OX contract.
"They (sellers) want a 1.5 cents/lb increase," the buyer said.
If OX were to follow the change in contract MX, however, the OX CP would only go up about 0.4 cents/lb from August's 43.5 cents/lb CP, the buyer added.
"We'll just have to see how it goes," the buyer said, regarding what might happen going forward with the contract.
China Chemical Weekly: http://news.chemnet.com/en/detail-1411716.html
