Since mid to late April, the domestic market price of methacrylic acid has been in a weak trend. The overall supply of imported methacrylic acid increased a little while the market price just slipped a little. Near the end of April the domestic market price of methacrylic acid slightly decreased for several times. Some of the downstream end-users tend to wait and hesitate and they don’t have a good expectation for the post market of methacrylic acid.
However, the domestic market of MAA turned out to be better at the first day after the May Day holiday. Some of the imported price stopped to fall and began to rise. Besides, the offer price of the domestic market also began to rise. Many experts claimed that it is possible for the price to continually rise in post market of May. So what is the real reason for the domestic market price of MAA to rebound and rise?
Firstly, the supply of Acetone cyanohydrin, main raw material of MAA, turned out to be short, and the market price is continually high. Restricted by the production costs, it is difficult for the domestic brand to reduce the price. On the contract, they may even raise the market price.
At the end of April, most of the domestic market showed out to be bleak, so many industry trader foresaw that the price of Acetone cyanohydrin in May will fall slightly. However, the price of Acetone cyanohydrin is still going up high between 11500 to 12000Yuan/ MT after the holiday. Because of that, the production costs of MAA began to rise under lots of pressure and it is difficult for traders to reduce the acceptance price. Some domestic brands of MAA probably increase their price due to the higher costs.
Secondly, the overall domestic supply of MAA is still short from the beginning to the middle of May, because the overall production capacity of the enterprise equipment is low.
After the May Day holiday, the overall production capacity of the enterprise equipment is low, and some of the enterprise even stopped their machine for maintenance and delay the recovery of production. At first, although the maintenance plan on May 10th has already finished, due to the problem of the machine, Evonik pull off the recovery of production until May 15th to 20th.
On the other sides, due to some force majeure, the production of Liaoning Hefa chemicals co., Ltd had to stop until May 20th. Under the background of short supply and high price of Acetone cyanohydrin and the MAA market fell slightly, although the production capacity of the domestic enterprises stayed in a normal level, some of them tried to maintain a medium load operating rate.
At present, the overall stock of domestic brands of MAA is small, which means they don’t have the pressure of sales. So, since the beginning of May, the supply of MAA from domestic brands is tight, and the market price may rise slightly.
Thirdly, the export of the domestic MAA is still active and some of the import price increased.
There is something should be noticed: the international price of MAA in May is still high and the export of the domestic MAA is still active since most of the domestic production enterprises have received lot of export orders. What’s more, the price of imported MAA tends to keep rising.
In conclusion, the trend of domestic market of MAA in May would totally differ from that in April, and the price might tend to increase in a high level. On the one hand, the domestic market price of the raw material acetone cyanohydrin stayed in a high level. On the other hand, due to the stop and delay of the some production, the domestic brand supply of MAA may still be tight. What’s more, the recent export of MAA was active and the price of some domestic brand increased. So, it is possible for the domestic MAA price in May to continually increase.