Fire at Dragon Aromatics plant in China raises paraxylene, benzene prices: Platts

A fire at Dragon Aromatics plant in southeastern China on April 6, 2015, has led to 5% increase in paraxylene and benzene prices in Asia, according to Platts.
 
Dragon Aromatics, owned by the Taiwanese petrochemical group Xianglu Group, is one of the largest independently-run paraxylene (PX) producers in China - the world’s leading consumer and manufacturer of the chemical. In 2013, China had to meet 53% of the paraxylene demand through imports.
 
According to Platts report, the plant at Zhangzhou has a nameplate production capacity of 240,000 metric tonne per annum of benzene and 1.6 million metric tonne per annum of paraxylene - a chemical used to produce a wide range of products ranging from water bottles to clothing and photographic film.