chemical Prices

In this week, the prices of Methyl Methacrylate in China were rolled over to $1800/ton contract CFR Qingdao and observed to be constant across the Asian region with dramatic deflection. The weak market demand in the Asian region was driven by feeble trading as many downstream customers in China were heard to shutting down from middle January for the New Year Lunar Holiday and the pessimistic economic outlook as a result of the Covid-19 new variant – Omicron pandemic crisis. However, the MMA plant shutdown due to hovering crude oil and logistics costs along with port congestion hindered product delivery in the parts of America and Asia. As a result, MMA producers hesitate to decrease the prices further and are compelled to roll over throughout January. In Southeast Asia, market demand was stabilized, and most downstream cast steel producers hesitate to build up the inventories prior to New Year and operated their plants with low productivity in order to keep their inventories stagnant....

Since the start of January 2022, the Malaysian Glycerine market witnessed immense pressure from both supply and demand outlook due to rising inquiries from the domestic and overseas market players. Whereas, the starting of New year is not so fortunate for the Palm Oil market, as the flood hits the seven states of Malaysia after the unusual rainfall that started in mid-December raised concerns regarding the destruction of harvested palm oil crops. In response, the palm oil futures soared by 4% in the first week of January, besides that it also presented uncertainty regarding the upcoming supply glut for the production of Glycerine in Malaysia. Whereas, the resurgence of the omicron variant of COVID-19 in major economies like China and India uplifted the demand from Pharmaceutical industries for the end-use applications of hand sanitation liquids. The market participants from China are most active and competitive regarding the secure large volumes of Glycerine ahead of the upcoming spri...

  The USA has been facing a shortage of chlor-alkali products ever since the winter freeze in 2021. Inventories prices of Caustic Soda in US were further pressurized due to Ida hurricane Q3 2021. Even though availability marginally eased in mid-December with a resumption in supplies from a major producer, Vinnolit in Germany, however spate of turnarounds scheduled in Q1 2022 have again stressed players over their existing inventory levels. Olin, a mega-produced of chlor-alkali in the US with a capacity of 550 MTPA Caustic Soda and 500 MTPA of Chlorine in Alabama unit, has announced a temporary outage at its plant in January. The shutdown is to completely resolve the operational issues that have been interrupting the output since July 2021. Besides, another plant of Olin with altogether 3 million MTPA capacity in Texas, is up for scheduled maintenance in Mid-March, this turnaround is likely to extend for a period of 1 month. In addition to this, Formosa Plastics with a 736 KTPA Ch...

Soda Ash prices continued to tumble in China in lieu of the narrowed demand and supply gap in the country. China Soda Ash market continued to experience tailwinds influenced by heavy inventories of the product amidst the bearish demand pattern. Soda Ash prices since late October have plummeted by nearly 25% as the majority of buyers remained at bay absorbing the unprecedented rise in its prices in H1 2021. In December, despite of the dull demand pattern, the operating rates of Soda Ash plants in China were increased. High operating rates resulted in higher output which directly impacted its prices negatively throughout the month. Prices continued to fall owing to mounting inventory levels and consistent negotiations by traders on spot offers. In January, inquiries for Soda Ash reached a bare minimum owing to the reduced activities in the construction sector. In line with the limited purchasing, Soda Ash prices showcased an astonishing fall by nearly 7% in the first ten days of January ...

The consistently increasing prices of R-PET and R-HDPE during the last quarter of 2021 in Europe got tamed in December end as the festive period approached. ChemAnalyst last assessed the prices for R-PET food grade and R-HDPE at USD 2270/MT FD Hamburg and USD 1652/MT FOB Hamburg, respectively, in December 2021. The prices of R-PET and R-HDPE have remained on the higher side in the third quarter of 2021 with inflation in demand primarily from the packaging industry. The extremity of the surge can be estimated from the fact that R-PET food-grade prices decoupled from the prices of their virgin counterparts and rose higher for a major portion of the year.  This was particularly due to the low availability of post-consumer R-PET supplies which remained insufficient for fulfilling the demand. However, the scenario has reversed in recent times, as the spot availability of virgin HDPE and virgin PET continued to remain tight since November. The festive period in December further fueled t...

Clouds of uncertainty have rolled over on the tightly available Malaysian glycerine, in a major turn of events Malaysian Crude Palm Oil (CPO) futures on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives exchange gained more than 3%. A sharp increase has come in the backdrop of unrelenting weather conditions across Malaysia where heavy rains run riots and sent waves of speculations around palm oil production. CPO production shortage has a direct bearing on the prices of Glycerine as vindicated by the production disruptions across 2021. A rise in Crude Palm Oil prices is likely to put upward pressure on downstream Glycerine which enjoyed a productive 2021 on the back of strong global demand and tight supply throughout the year. Southern Peninsular Palm Oil Millers Association stated that they have observed an 8.5% decline in Palm oil production in December on monthly basis. This production dip is likely to snowball into a bullish change in Glycerine prices . There were speculations during Q4 that prices o...

  Amidst strong demand and limited supply throughout the domestic markets in China, the pricing trend of Lithium Carbonate showcased a continuous increment during the month of December. As per ChemAnalyst, Lithium Carbonate Ex-works prices in China have escalated from USD 33800/MT to USD 38200/MT, up by about 13.01% between 17th December to 27th December. Soaring prices in the Chinese Lithium market were not only driven by tightened supply and the strong downstream demand but also rapidly increasing feedstock costs. The prices of metals skyrocketed in 2021 due to the disruption in global supply amid huge demand. According to market sources, the spike in Lithium Carbonate prices came on the back of an increase in the production of LFP (Lithium Iron Phosphate), which utilizes lithium carbonate as opposed to other types of Lithium-ion batteries. Prices for technical grade Lithium Carbonate have also soared significantly as consumers are utilizing it to produce Lithium Hydroxide. Conti...

  Impacts of Omicron variant have made its presence felt where first instances of variant induced supply shortage are manifesting in key Asian Acrylic Acid market . Southeast Asia has been at the forefront where trading activities have been badly hampered due to an increase in restrictions and a complete shutdown of crucial ports. Rising new cases of Omicron have induced speculations and uncertainty in the global market, where traders have already started procuring and replenishing their inventories for future availabilities in hope of better margins. As per ChemAnalyst sources, traders across Southeast Asia have started raising their offers under the fear of the Omicron menace, which has been raising concerns over nascent recovered global trade activities. Consequently, further positive revisions in prices are expected for Acrylic Acid in the forthcoming weeks across the Asian market. Resurgence in cases has blocked imports on major trading ports, while respective domestic deman...