market review
pu market is not active in march. most products presented stable. on one hand, that market is affected by april list price while on the other hand, end market players were lack of sufficient order. pu market is still cold just like the chilling weather in early spring. trends in detail:
isocyanate
pure mdi: pure mdi market remained stable. mainstream quotation was heard at rmb 21500-22300/ton in east china and rmb 21500-22500/ton in south. demands were weak. as raw material price continued dropping and downstream demand hasn’t started, quotations kept stable.
shanghai lianheng operated stably this week. bayer (shanghai) was under normal operation while rate was not that stable. yantai facility of wanhua was good while ningbo facility stopped last weekend for plant failure of raw material.
polymeric mdi: pmdi price fluctuated within a small range around low level this week. although most suppliers chose to firm prices under cost pressure, a small part of traders delivered goods at low price because of weak demand and mediocre turnover. market will probably keep unimproved unless we hear good news of operating rate down-adjustment, increasing exports or rebounding downstream demand. pm200 were negotiated around rmb 18900-19200/ton, m20s and 44v20 at rmb 18800-19300/ton while goods from japan and korea were heard at rmb 18700-18800/ton.
tdi:tdi market headed to downward. basf and bayer announced april list and settlement price early this week, which failed to stop market from dropping. facing mediocre downstream needs, quotations got closer to lower end despite of firmed settlement price. players are waiting for the list price of domestic companies for the moment. international oil price keeps increasing, which offers limited support to domestic market price. tdi availability is ample and stable now. there remains room for further decrease.
overall prices were in downswing, especially homemade goods in south china. prices for homemade goods were adjusted from rmb 22300-22500/ton last friday to rmb 21800-22000/ton this friday in east china while price for shanghai goods were regulated rmb 22800-23000/ton to rmb 22500-22600/ton. in south china, price for homemade goods were adjusted from rmb 21500-21600/ton to rmb 20800-21000/ton while quotation for shanghai goods were regulated from rmb 22400-22600/ton to rmb 21300-21500/ton.
polyol
aa (adipic acid): this week adipic acid values pegged at rmb 11400-12300/ton with downstream customers were slightly against big spread between settlement price and market quotations. overall operation rates were heard around 50% since downstream plants had sufficient inventory. end on the writing day, quotations of shandong and xinjiang were heard around rmb 11400-11700/ton in east china, rmb 11600-11900/ton in south china, low end by cash and high end by acceptance; while materials from liaoyang petrochemical in east china and south china were quoted at rmb 12000-12300/ton. as to imports, mainstream usd quotations were heard at $1950-2000/ton, accounting for rmb 15000-16000/ton.
bdo: domestic bdo this week still rolled down although some plants cut down allocation due to low operation rates and shut-down. suppliers intended to stimulate shipments since supply would increase significantly in the late period thus they lowered negotiation levels.
mainstream negotiation values were adjusted from rmb 14500-14800/ton early week to rmb 14400-14600/ton at weekend; negotiation numbers of imports were heard around rmb 14600-17200/ton with drum goods pegged at rmb 17200-22200/ton.
po (propylene oxide): po market headed upside with upstream shandong propylene slightly rising by rmb 50-100/ton and then keeping firm. coupled with zhenhai refinery maintenance plan and smooth shipments heard from plants, po quotations would incrase by rmb 200/ton. po market was expected to keep stable or slightly move up in the late period.
mainstream quotations were up by rmb 500-600/ton in shandong district. material prices moved from rmb 11200-11300/ton last weekend to rmb 11700-11800/ton this weekend. in east china numbers fluctuated from rmb 10250-11450/ton to rmb 11850-12050/ton.
ppg: under support from upstream po market, flexible ppg plants intended to raise quotations, and general flexible ppg prices kept stable while pop and high-resilience ppg moved up a bit, although supply in market was ample and demand pictured soft. in shandong and north china general ppg prices stabilized at rmb 12000-12300/ton, while numbers were heard at rmb 12300-12500/ton in east china and south china.
rigid ppg sprang up in terms of trading volume and quotations also increased a bit. upstream po prices in east china rose by rmb 600/ton while up by rmb 500/ton in shandong district in terms of ex-works prices. downstream construction sector was barely growing and home appliance sector had improved compared with same period of last year. till now materials were negotiated at rmb 11500-11700/ton (ex-works by acceptance) in shandong and north china, while quotations were heard at rmb 10900-12300/ton (delivered by cash).
solvent
dmf: this week dmf market kept insipid due to weak demand. plants had strong intension for shipment, thus negotiation room spread and nominations were hovering around rmb 5900-6200/ton. most plants operated stably at 70%-80% except anhui huainan chemical and luxi chemical.
negotiations were fluctuating around rmb 5900-6100/ton delivered by acceptance in jiangsu and zhejiang, rmb 5700-5800/ton ex-works in north china and shandong, while rmb 6000-6200/ton delivered by acceptance in guangzhou and fujian.
mek: mek market continued heading downside with mainstream quotations in east china falling down to rmb 7900-7950/ton and in south china numbers dropped to rmb 8000-8100/ton, but then market stopped stepping down and kept stable when insiders expected market to fall further.
downstream
pu coating systems: pu coatings market presented fair this week. operating rate of most manufacturers maintained above 60% and order increased as well. but as manufacturers have enough raw material inventories, they are not interested in buying raw material for the moment. high settlement price of adipic acid (rmb 12600/ton) affected pu coating market. buyers are consuming inventories are watching the market now. mmdi price is stable while bdo price fell to rmb 14400-14600/ton from rmb 14500-14800/ton. dmf bulk goods were quoted at rmb 5900-6200/ton (delivered, by acceptance) while mek keeps downswing with price heard at rmb 7900-8100/ton.
spandex: prices for 20d and 40d were adjusted to rmb 53000-62000/ton and rmb 45000-47000/ton respectively. overall operating rate in spandex market remained stable. as demands from downstream textile industry presented stable and healthy while goods from some big sources started to be tight, holders lifted quotations slightly. new capacity added last year hasn’t released and operating rate increased in current market, but buyers are still cautious in purchasing raw materials. they mainly place orders on a hand-to-mouth basis. turnovers in domestic spandex market increased and firmed at a relatively high level as work shortage in weaving industry has been eased and small orders from end-user market started to increase. operating rate of major weaving factories in zhejiang and jiangsu keeps at 40-50%.
sole resin: sole resin market this week was flat this week. operating rates of small and medium size factories kept at 50-60%. high settlement price of adipic acid (rmb 12600/ton) affected pu coating market. buyers are consuming inventories are watching the market now. mmdi price is stable and mainstream price is heard at rmb 21500-22500/ton. eg price is quoted at rmb 7350/ton while traded at rmb 7300/ton in east china
sole resin was quoted around rmb 18000-19000/ton in jiangsu and zhejiang while rmb 18500-19500/ton in guangzhou and fujian. negotiation room remained in real orders.
tpu: domestic tpu market was mediocre. most holders keep stable quotations as demands from downstream areas didn’t increase, and in the meantime supports from upstream raw materials are decreasing, manufacturers are cautious in offering prices. they negotiated price according to specific orders. domestic companies operate at 60% while foreign and taiwan companies ran at 80-90%. no improvement seen in april new order negotiation.
pure polyester (80a-95a) bg tpu was quoted at rmb 24000-25000/ton while pure eg tpu was quoted at rmb 20000-21000/ton. mainstream price was close to low end. some manufacturer quoted polyester tpu used in pipeline at rmb 20000-2000/ton, among which high-end is the price from middlemen while low-end was from manufacturers. polyester tpu used in cable was quoted at rmb 26000-27000/ton while some polyether tpu price was heard at rmb 37000-38000/ton. polyether tpu was quoted above rmb 40000-60000/ton in south china. manufacturers produce goods according to orders.