"Directionally, the market is softer because global(United States and Europe) prices are dropping, so it's difficult for this market to hold," one trader with a Singapore based company said. "It's not routine, but arbitrage of cargoes here could take place if prices are too high."

Traders said that sellers were asking around $210 per tonne on a free-on-board (fob) Singapore basis, almost the same levels as last week but buyer's ideas have dropped to around $200.

This was in line with the US MTBE prices which have fallen as demand slumped in the wake of falling gasoline prices to below $180 per tonne, traders said. Traders said sell pressure was building as supplies were also returning to normal.

Key exporters Saudi European Petrochemical Company's (IbnZahr) 700,000 tonnes-per-year (tpy) plant was shut from May until October dueto operational problems and MTBE Malaysia's 300,000-tpy plant also suffered a similar fate.

MTBE Malaysia was now operating at optimum capacity again after staying at nearly 50-percent down for last few months, a source said.

Traders said that there were no incremental demand to support prices in Asia, with buyers Thailand and China largely staying out of the January market.

Thailand's Bangchak had not tendered for January supplies and its February requirements were still unclear, traders said.

"We haven't fixed anything yet on the spot basis, outside from our regular term buyers," one regular MTBE seller into Thailand said.

But some traders said the pressure to sell has not fully manifested yet. "We are not into the spot market yet, we are still catching with supplying our term customers," the source at MTBE Malaysia said.

The source, however, said they have also not been approached by buyers to sell any spot cargoes either. "Eventually, sellers will have to lower prices, they can hold it up to acertain extent but not for too long," one trader said.