Chemicals market continues to pick up

Supported by the rise in international crude oil prices, the prices of basic raw materials, ethylene and fluorocarbons, remained strong, driving the chemicals market to continue to pick up. The better performing varieties are concentrated in synthetic rubber and adipic acid. The synthetic rubber industry is now showing signs of improvement. The weekly gains of styrene butadiene rubber and butadiene butadiene rubber are about 7% and 6% respectively. Natural rubber prices continue to strengthen under the expectation of domestic storage and storage and the period of withdrawal in Southeast Asia, making the advantages of alternative synthetic rubber gradually appear. Second, raw material butadiene prices have brought cost support.

The industry expects that the current downstream car manufacturers will usher in the traditional sales season and increase tire sales. It is expected that manufacturers will need to make up stocks of synthetic rubber after stocks are consumed, which will make the market trend toward better.

Adipic acid continues to rebound. Last week, the price of adipic acid rose by about 5% to a two-month high and has risen more than 10% since the end of November. The effect of the limited production and insured price of the manufacturers is obvious. Coupled with the accidental shutdown of some production facilities, the inventories in the adipic acid market have dropped significantly. According to another understanding, due to the influence of cost factors, the willingness of enterprises to expand production in the short term is not strong, and it constitutes a price support for adipic acid.