Benzene: Relationships
Every element and industry that Benzene is linked to, and how. Each pair has its own card explaining the relationships between the two.
- Crude oil: Benzene is extracted from naphtha-derived streams in refineries and crackers, so crude oil sets its cost floor; producers earn the benzene to naphtha spread, which turned negative in March 2026 when naphtha spiked. (researched)
- Coking coal: When coking coal is baked into coke for steelmaking, the oven gas carries crude benzol, which is recovered and refined into benzene. It is a by-product whose volume follows steel output, not benzene demand, and it matters most in China, where it supplied about a fifth of benzene in 2022. (researched)
- Phenol and acetone: Phenol and acetone are made from benzene and propylene through cumene, and the two products always come out together in a fixed ratio. Cumene is benzene's second largest outlet, so phenol demand for resins and plastics pulls on benzene, while acetone prices shape phenol's economics. (researched)
- Styrene: Styrene is benzene's largest outlet: more than half of world benzene goes into ethylbenzene, almost all of which becomes styrene. China's rapid styrene build has therefore reshaped benzene trade as well as styrene trade. (researched)
- Bisphenol A: Their prices have moved together.
- Caprolactam: Their prices have moved together.
- Custom synthesis (CDMO): Their prices have moved together.
- Dyes: Their prices have moved together.
- Linear alkylbenzene: Their prices have moved together.
- Nylon (PA6, PA66): Their prices have moved together.
- Organic pigments: Their prices have moved together.
- Pharma starting materials and intermediates: Their prices have moved together.
- Polystyrene and EPS: Their prices have moved together.
- Polyurethanes (MDI, TDI, polyols): Their prices have moved together.
- Refining and reforming: Their prices have moved together.
- Rubber chemicals: Their prices have moved together.
- Textiles and leather: Textiles and leather depends on benzene.