In August, market prices for acrylic acid rose sharply

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I. Price Trends According to Business Society’s data, market prices for acrylic acid have shown a steady upward trend this month, as the overall supply in the market is extremely tight. At the beginning of August, the price of high-quality acrylic acid in China was 7,833 yuan per ton; by the end of August, this price rose to 10,000 yuan per ton, representing an increase of 27.7%. II. Market Analysis: Product – In August, the overall supply situation in China’s acrylic acid market was extremely tight. Due to environmental regulations, manufacturers operated at low capacity levels, which led to a steady rise in the prices of acrylic acid. At the end of the month, Zhejiang Weixing Petrochemical Co., Ltd., one of the major domestic acrylic acid producers, quoted the price of pure acrylic acid at 10,000 yuan per ton, while Jiangsu Yulang Chemical Co., Ltd. raised the price of its pure acrylic acid to 10,300 yuan per ton. In terms of production capacity, in the first half of August, the operating rate of acrylic production facilities in China remained around 50%. In the second half of the month, due to environmental regulations, manufacturers such as Qilu Kaitai and Shanghai Huayi ceased operations one after another, resulting in a continuous shortage of supply in the market. Internationally, the acrylic acid market in the United States has been affected by Hurricane Harvey in the Gulf of Mexico. To date, 710,000 tons of acrylic acid production capacity in the U.S. has been shut down, accounting for 59% of the country’s total acrylic acid production capacity of 1.2 million tons. This has led to ongoing shortages of acrylic acid supplies in international markets, while export volumes of acrylic acid from the domestic market have risen rapidly. Industry chain: The price of propylene, the upstream raw material, has risen significantly, with an increase of 400–700 yuan per ton compared to the end of last month. Due to environmental and safety inspections, various manufacturers have had to suspend production to varying degrees, and these supply-related factors have contributed to the rise in propylene prices. The operating rates of downstream acrylate manufacturers are gradually increasing, leading to a rise in demand for acrylic acid and further boosting the growth of the acrylic acid market. III. Market Outlook Liu Meng, an acrylic analyst at Business Society, believes that from a supply perspective, environmental regulations have kept production levels in China’s acrylic market low, resulting in shortages of supplies for manufacturers. Affected by Hurricane Harvey in the Gulf of Mexico, supply in the international acrylic acid market has declined sharply. From the demand side, production at downstream acrylate manufacturers is gradually resuming, leading to an increase in demand; meanwhile, hurricanes have caused a significant rise in domestic acrylate exports. Overall, the domestic acrylic acid market is characterized by a supply shortage relative to demand, and it is expected that the upward trend in this market will continue in September.