Since the Spring Festival, the domestic chemical industry is booming and leads chemical product price continue to rise. In particular the price of caprolactam market has also risen rapidly due to multiple pespectives such as rising costs, loose funds, expected inflation, and concentrated rise in bulk commodities. The East China liquid spot acceptance price has risen to 14,500-14,700 yuan/ton.

However, the rapidly rising prices suppressed the enthusiasm for downstream procurement, and the overall demand did not rush along with the prices.

Caprolactam, with a chemical formula of C6H11NO and a molecular weight of 113.16, is one of the important organic chemical raw materials. The appearance is white powder or crystals with an oily feel.

The main purpose is to produce polyamide chips (usually called nylon-6 chips or nylon-6 chips) through polymerization, which can be further processed into nylon fibers, engineering plastics, and plastic films.

There are fewer new orders from downstream end users, leading to a gradual increase in inventory pressure in the aggregation link. At present, the price of conventional spinning chips in polymerization plants is upside down with the price of caprolactam. Starting in mid-March, polymerization plants have concentrated on reducing the demand, and the demand for caprolactam has decreased, and then prices have begun to fall. As of March 19, the spot acceptance delivery price of East China caprolactam liquid fell to 13,300-13500 yuan/ton, a 8.22% correction from the high point at the beginning of the month.

The social inventory of PA6 conventional spinning chips is relatively large, coupled with the slow follow-up of their own orders in downstream modification, staple fiber, fishing nets and other industries, the acceptance of high-priced raw materials is low, and the price of PA6 conventional spinning chips is the first to fall. The inventory pressure of conventional spinning chips in the polymerization plant is relatively high, and the manufacturers focus on reducing the burden, and the demand for caprolactam is reduced.

In addition to the demand side, the cost side also brings downward pressure on the caprolactam market.

Last week, U.S. Treasury yields soared, the dollar strengthened, and European vaccination was blocked. Market concerns about short-term demand prospects intensified. International oil prices plummeted, and domestic futures commodity prices also fell sharply on Friday.

The sharp drop in styrene and crude oil prices dragged down the pure benzene market, and the spot price of pure benzene fell to around 6000 yuan/ton.

The sharp drop in the cost side has aggravated the bearish psychology of the downstream, the overall purchasing atmosphere of the slice market is weak, and some of the aggregation factories still continue to decline.

From the perspective of supply, the supply of caprolactam tends to be abundant when Luxi Phase I restarts and Jiangsu Haili restarts.

Under the triple pressure, the downward adjustment of the caprolactam market is also reasonable. Under the premise that there is no good news in demand, supply and cost, it is estimated that the caprolactam market will not rise sharply in the short term.

Source from MOLBASE