Talking about the hot topic in the polyester market in recent times – it must be the fluctuation of the polyester industry chain caused by the maintenance of PTA equipment!
In the past period from the end of March to the beginning of April, news about the maintenance of domestic PTA factory equipment was flying all over the place. With the supply and demand structure fluctuating, the PTA market was like a “roller coaster” Great ups and downs.
Planned maintenance of equipment, PTA increases!
On March 28, a 2.2 million-ton unit of Hengli was overhauled as planned. As soon as this news came out, the PTA market, which had been silent in the weak market, ushered in A rebound. The spot price at the main port in East China rose from 6,450 yuan/ton to 6,640 yuan/ton, an increase of 2.86%. This round of rise lasted for 3 working days.
Planned maintenance of equipment postponed, PTA fell!
On April 2, Yizheng Petrochemical’s 650,000-ton PTA unit was originally scheduled to be inspected for 15 days in June, but the plan was postponed; at the same time, Fuhai Chuang’s 4.5 million-ton PTA unit was originally planned It will be inspected for half a month in May, so the plan is postponed. As soon as these two news came out, PTA ended its early rising trend and began to turn around and fall. The spot price at the main port in East China fell from 6640 yuan/ton to 6420 yuan/ton, a decrease of 3.43%. This round of decline lasted for 2 working days.
Maintenance plan + emergency, PTA rises!
On the morning of April 4, Hengli Petrochemical announced that the 2.2 million tons PTA unit of line 1 will be inspected for 15 days on April 15; Jiaxing Petrochemical’s 2.2 million tons The ton device is scheduled to be inspected on April 8 for 15-20 days. As soon as this news came out, the PTA market began to rebound again, but the rebound was smaller. The spot price at the main port in East China rose from 6420 yuan/ton to 6480 yuan/ton.
On the afternoon of April 4, Fuhaichuang announced that the 4.5 million tons PTA unit was out of service due to condensate oil outage in May. The initial maintenance plan in May was implemented as scheduled. As soon as this news came out, the PTA market surged. The spot price at the main port in East China rose again to above 6,600 yuan.
On April 8, an explosion occurred at Formosa Plastics Yunlin Mailiao Liuqing Taihua Aromatic Hydrocarbons Plant No. 3. The PTA responded most quickly to the explosion! On the 8th, PTA futures opened with a gap and opened higher. It once reached the upper limit during the session and closed sharply higher. As of the close of the day, the main 1905 contract closed at 6576 yuan/ton, which was a significant increase compared with the settlement price on the previous trading day. 134 yuan/ton, an increase of 2.08%.
According to statistics, the average operating rate of PTA in the recent stage is concentrated at 81.3%, the real-time operating rate is 80.1%, and the real-time effective operating rate is 91.0 %.
PTA’s upstream catalytic effect on the polyester filament market is gradually weakening!
It is understood that this year polyester manufacturers have fewer PTA purchase contracts and more spot purchases, which also increases the space for PTA manufacturers to speculate on prices. In recent times, there have been constant rumors about the maintenance of PTA equipment. Factors such as maintenance adjustments, malfunctions, etc. have become the nodes for PTA manufacturers to speculate on prices; but for the polyester filament market, the upstream catalytic effect is gradually weakening!
With the release of the good news about PTA, the polyester filament market was once driven up. Driven by the rising buying sentiment, the downstream market was also driven by the buying sentiment. The market transactions were booming and production and sales continued to increase. However, amid the ups and downs of PTA, downstream resistance gradually increased. Due to the reality of sluggish demand in the polyester market, follow-up efforts were obviously insufficient.
The role of downstream demand appears, and the lack of buy-in restricts the growth of polyester filament!
For the polyester filament market, in the final analysis it still depends on needs! Although PTA continues to rise, it may create a driving force for the polyester market to a certain extent, but the sustainability is not great; the key to the improvement of the polyester market is the cooperation of downstream market demand.
Since March, although the start-up rate of water-jet and air-jet looms in Shengze and other regions has been relatively stable, the overall performance has been unsatisfactory, and downstream orders have been slow, especially for imitation memory. The sales of conventional products such as , taslan, nylon, polyester taffeta, pongee and peach skin are not as good as expected. Manufacturers have stated that as peripheral production capacity increases, competition for mid- and low-end products is fierce and sales pressure has increased. In addition, in the knitting market, warp knitting and circular knitting knitting machines performed poorly, and sales were not ideal. Most of them were pre-orders, and new orders were followed slowly; especially since mid-April, the knitting market’s operating rate has shown signs of falling, which is bound to Impact on raw material procurement.
Although domestic PTA factory equipment maintenance is concentrated in April and May, and the supply and demand pattern is adjusted, there may be certain cost support; but for polyester filament, the downstream weaving market shows signs of weakening, and orders have continued to decline. Problems such as slow progress, increased inventory, shrinking profits, etc. are all key factors affecting the later market. High profit,With the start of construction, whether the polyester filament market can go far depends on the development of the downstream market! </p
