After the long Spring Festival holiday, in addition to the soaring futures market in the chemical market, the spot market also continued the pre-holiday market and continued to increase prices strongly! From February 9th to February 20th, raw materials such as DBP, octanol, n-butanol, DOP, butyl acetate, DOTP, BDO, isobutanol, butyl acrylate, phthalic anhydride, etc. all increased by more than 20%!
Propylene and ethylene industry chain is going crazy
On February 19, a large-scale plant shutdown caused the prices of propylene and ethylene to hit new highs, and multiple cracking units and three propane dehydrogenation units were all shut down. The price of derivative polymers has not been greatly affected. However, sources predict that the already tight supply before the frost will be tightened sharply due to the shutdown of the device, and the prices of polyethylene, polypropylene and polyvinyl chloride, which are already at a high level, will rise further.
Propylene glycol prices rose sharply after the Spring Festival
Over 2,000 yuan in three days
After returning from the Spring Festival holiday, propylene glycol rose again; propylene glycol rose by 2,000 yuan/ton within three days from February 18th to February 20th, and external force majeure helped prices rise again. Most industry players still have confidence, and it is expected that propylene glycol will continue to explore Possible.
In terms of cost, the raw material propylene oxide showed a steady upward trend after the festival, which strongly supported the propylene glycol market, and the growth rate of related products in the industrial chain also expanded.
Global supply of n-butanol approaches
In February, the East China market increased by 5200 yuan/ton
In the fourth quarter of 2020, the global n-butanol market is tight. In Northwestern Europe, due to the shortage of upstream propylene supply, some n-butanol plants are shut down and export sources are tight. In early December, the German BASF's n-butanol plant announced force majeure, and it has not yet restarted. Taiwan’s Formosa Plastics plant was shut down for maintenance for one month in mid-December. At the same time, driven by the recovery of the coatings and automotive industries, global demand has fully recovered, causing the global n-butanol market to be in a tense situation, driving market prices to increase continuously from the end of 2020 to after the Spring Festival. In February alone, the price of n-butanol in Jiangsu increased by 5200 yuan/ton, an increase of 59%.
The daily increase of butyl acetate is up to 1,700 yuan
Prices have risen by 45.66% in February
Recently, the price of butyl acetate has been rising continuously, with the highest single-day increase of 1,700 yuan/ton. As of February 20, the cumulative increase of butyl acetate was 3950 yuan/ton, an increase of 45.66% compared with February 1, causing the butyl acetate market to soar The main reason is driven by raw noodles.
The prices of acetic acid and butanol as raw materials were already high a year ago. But the butyl acetate manufacturers themselves had no profit margins. They passively followed the upward trend and the prices continued to rise. Near the Spring Festival holiday, some manufacturers stopped their installations and the market spot supply decreased, which supported the price of butyl acetate. Strong high. However, the terminal is more resistant to high-priced sources, and the number of stocks is very limited, giving a certain demand for market price increases after the year.
Phenol rose for three consecutive days after the holiday
An increase of over 1,000 yuan/ton
Since the return to the market during the Spring Festival holiday, the market price of phenol in East China has risen slightly by more than 1,000 yuan/ton. From February 18th to 20th, Sinopec East China's pure benzene price increased by 750 yuan/ton to 6,150 yuan/ton for two times, Sinopec Huadong Zhenhai Refining & Chemical propylene price increased by 300 yuan/ton to 7,400 yuan/ton, and the production cost of phenol ketone increased to 10895 yuan/ton. Sinopec East China's phenol price has been raised by 700 yuan/ton to 7,550 yuan/ton, Sinopec East China acetone price has remained stable at 8,100 yuan/ton, and the theoretical profit value of phenol ketone enterprises is 1,677 yuan/ton, which is slightly narrower than before the holiday.
The US cold wave affects global supply,
Tosoh MDI increased by 2270 yuan/ton!
The global MDI market supply is tightening. The domestic heavy-duty truck MDI device was overhauled at the end of February, and the foreign European Huntsman MDI device was overhauled in March. In addition, under the influence of the cold wave in the United States, BASF's MDI device was frozen and Covestro's MDI device was reduced.
Under the tightening of supply, Tosoh Specialty Chemicals (U.S.) issued a notice to increase the price of Millionate MDI in North America, stating that from March 1, 2021, or according to the terms of the contract, Tosoh Specialty Chemicals (U.S.) will Increase the price of MDI for this brand by US$0.35/kg (approximately RMB 2270/ton).
All in all, the chemical market has basically ushered in a general rise in the market, and as the price of crude oil rebounds, the cost pushes the superimposed supply to tighten, and there is a high probability that the price of chemical products will continue to rise in the future!
