Overnight on March 8, Asian benzene prices lost $30.50/mt to setde at $1,157/mt fob Korea, a three-week low after hitting a 31-month high on Feb. 22 of $1,240/mt fob Korea. The decline, motivated by a near-$3/bbl fall in Brent crude prices and a $25/mt slide in the cfr Japan naphtha benchmark, erased a $7/mt gain in benzene prices posted earlier in the day. The benzene-naphtha price spread tightened to $168.62/mt overnight, from $174.12/mt on March 7, and the arbitrage from Asia to the West closed, leaving Asia with a surplus of product.
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