Sinopec has raised its east China toluene list price by 6.7% or 500 yuan ($87.20) per metric ton to 8,000 yuan/mt ex-warehouse on March 23, industry sources said. This marks the company's 10th price adjustment in March, which has seen the highest number of price revisions in a single month so far.
The current list price is equivalent to $907.28/mt CFR China on an import parity basis. Sinopec last revised its east China toluene list price upwards on March 12, by 400 yuan/mt to 7,500 yuan/mt ex-warehouse, OPIS data shows.
Mirroring broader market trends, refiners in Shandong raised their domestic toluene prices by 480 yuan/mt - 750 yuan/mt on Monday, industry sources said. This sharp uptick was fueled by an acute supply shortage in the province, as producers increasingly diverted toluene to the gasoline blending pool to capitalize on fuel demand.
Exacerbating the shortage is the impending annual maintenance this month for several plants. Sinopec Jinling's two plants in Jiangsu, totalling 318,000 mt/year, and Sinopec Shijazhuang's 67,000 mt/year plant in Hebei are expected to be taken offline for about two months.
Domestic toluene prices rose by 9.2% week on week as of March 23 to 8,275 yuan/mt ex-tank, OPIS data shows. The rapid drawdown on inventories in east China has added to the supply crunch and contributed to the escalating prices in the local market. Toluene shore-tank inventories in east China fell 11.7% to 56,700 mt on March 20, according to data from Chemical Market Analytics by OPIS.
In response to increasing domestic demand and the global fuel shortage, the Chinese government has temporarily suspended refined product exports and capped price hikes for gasoline and diesel to cushion the impact of surging oil prices.
This content was created by Oil Price Information Service, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. OPIS is run independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
--Reporting by Serena Seng, sseng@opisnet.com; Editing by Editing by Mei-Hwen Wong, mwong@opisnet.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 23, 2026 22:55 ET (02:55 GMT)
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