Recently, the overall domestic market for methyl methacrylate has been tight on the spot supply. In particular, due to the “dual energy control” factor, most domestic methyl methacrylate manufacturers have entered the state of facilities maintenance which ahead of schedule. The actual production and supply level has been tight, and market prices will continue at high level.
Recently, some domestic methyl methacrylate production enterprises have concentrated on advance maintenance. Chongqing Yixiang’s 225,000-ton/year methyl methacrylate plant was shut down for maintenance on September 16. The 170,000-ton/year methyl methacrylate production plant in Sierbang, Jiangsu, of which the 85,000-ton/year production line was shut down for maintenance from September 21 to October 21. Shandong Hongxu Chemical’s 75,000-ton/year MMA device responds to energy consumption dual-control policy, and both upstream and downstream are operating at low loads. The products are only manufactured for core customers. Mitsubishi Chemical (Shanghai) will start the routine shutdown of the company’s 180,000-ton/year MMA device for 21 days from November 16th. Due to low inventory, it will be sold in limited quantities starting in October. The methacrylic acid and its ester production enterprises in Shandong also plan to stop for maintenance of 15 days from mid-October. Therefore, on the whole, the overall domestic spot supply of methyl methacrylate is slightly tight, and the overall market prices remain high level, and low-price supply is difficult to find on the market.
From the end of the third quarter to the fourth quarter of 2021, the overhaul of methyl methacrylate plants in oversea market will be concentrated. The 220,000-ton/year methyl methacrylate plant of Rohm in Germany was shut down and overhauled for 21 days in September; Mitsubishi in Britain has 200,000 tons/year methyl methacrylate plant which will be shut down for 90 days’ maintenance since September; Mitsubishi’s 90,000 tons/year methyl methacrylate plant in Japan was stopped for 21 days in September too; Japan Asahi Kasei’s 90,000 tons/year methyl methacrylate plant will be shut down for maintenance 21 days in October; the 90,000 tons/year methyl methacrylate plant of Taiwan Formosa Plastic will shut down 30 days for maintenance in October; the 100,000 tons/year methyl methacrylate L1 plant of South Korea’s LG Chemical will shut down 14 days in October; the 100,000-ton/year methyl methacrylate L3 plant of LG will shut down 14 days in November; the 50,000-ton/year methyl methacrylate plant of South Korea’s Lotte Chemical will shut down 21 days in November. In addition, the recent loading rate of the methyl methacrylate plant in Saudi Arabia has also maintained a steady and weak trend. Affected by these, it is predicted that the overall supply of methyl methacrylate globally will be tight. Therefore, the source of imported volume into China may be limited.
The domestic downstream purchasing of methyl methacrylate maintains low operation. Affected by the national “dual control of energy” policy, the overall operating rate of domestic downstream manufacturers also shows a low operating trend. Therefore, the recent purchase and trading maintain more of inelastic demand.
The October National Day holiday is approaching, and more people in the industry are paying more attention to the overall trend of the domestic market after the October holiday. This is mainly to be observed from aspects of supply and demand. Since from October to November, some domestic methyl methacrylate manufacturers are still in the process of shutting down for maintenance, and after the National Day holiday, although some new methyl methacrylate devices have been put into trial production, due to “double control of energy” policy and impact of the new coronavirus in some parts of the country whether new volume of trial production can be put on the market remain unknown.
Entering October, with the gradual recovery of demand from domestic methyl methacrylate downstream, it is probably that the actual spot supply of domestic methyl methacrylate market will still in a tight situation from early to mid October.