Asia to witness easing n-Heptane price future in May

Mumbai, India: In India, the n-Heptane market stayed stable this week after a long time on the back of crude oil prices that slipped on Monday morning in the early Asian trade. The overall demand fundamentals from various downstream industries were affected this week, and the n-Heptane market players were heard dealing with increasing cost pressure.

After three-week high prices, the oil fell this week as investors awaited European Union discussions on a Russian oil embargo, which was anticipated to constrain global supplies of all the crude derivatives, including n-Heptane. Brent crude had fallen to USD 111 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude had fallen to USD 109 a barrel, which spawned the n-Heptane prices as USD 2498/MT, according to the ChemAnalyst Database.

The Russia-Ukraine crisis further hampered the upstream Crude oil market, which had already been inflated since the pandemic. After the European Union announced intentions to gradually phase in a Russian crude ban, prices spiked to levels not seen since April 18. Several EU members states, especially Hungary and Slovakia, have expressed opposition to the idea due to their substantial reliance on Russian oil. The EU's 27 ambassadors met on May 8 to discuss the changes to its planned embargo on Russian oil, and conclusively, the countries were given more time to shift their EU supplies. Adding to this, the prices dropped by more than 4 US Dollars per barrel for the next month's shipments.

Meanwhile, in a May 8 notification, Saudi Aramco decreased almost all of its crude oil official selling prices for June-loading cargoes across Asia, Europe, and the Mediterranean, indicating that China's lockdowns and rising fuel prices were beginning to weigh on demand. "If these negotiations linger, we might see some selling pressure return to the market, which we're already witnessing in Asian early morning trading," our ChemAnalyst revealed. Thus, all these factors affected the N-Heptane solvent market across the region.

As per ChemAnalyst, "the pricing dynamics of n-Heptane in the Asian regional market are expected to continue on a stable note amid lowering demand fundamentals for the solvent. Additionally, Saudi Arabia might lower the Crude oil prices for Asia amid surging Covid cases in the world's second-largest economy, China. The price correction is likely to get transferred to the downstream n-Heptane pricing, which might further affect the solvent market players in the region."