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The more you drive, the more you lose! Southwest petrochemical firms struggle to endure the cold winter

2025-10-14View Original

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Recently, a fertilizer manufacturer in the southwest region told reporters from China Chemical Industry News that the price of natural gas, which is used as raw material for their production, has now reached 2.29 yuan per cubic meter. The heating season is approaching next month, and as usual, the price of natural gas is expected to rise further. Meanwhile, the market price of urea has dropped to 1,500 yuan per ton. It has become difficult for the company to continue operating, and reducing production will become a reality.   Relevant enterprises told reporters that currently, all fertilizer companies are holding relatively high inventories. Meanwhile, the market price of urea has fallen below 1,600 yuan per ton, dropping to 1,500 yuan per ton. The cost of raw materials, auxiliary materials, and energy for these enterprises exceeds 1,500 yuan per ton; as a result, there is currently no marginal contribution at all. As a result, fertilizer manufacturers in the southwest were forced to gradually reduce production or even shut down. Because when the product price is lower than the cost of materials, the more units produced, the greater the losses.   “Winter heating will start next month. During the winter heating season, from November 15th of each year to March 15th of the following year, natural gas prices usually increase as is customary. So under such circumstances, if nothing else changes, we are likely to cease production in November. It’s already impossible to get by; another increase in natural gas prices next month will only make things worse. ”Some companies said.   Data shows that from 2021 to 2025, the average price of natural gas for use in the chemical industry in the southwest region rose from around 1.75 yuan per cubic meter to nearly 2.3 yuan per cubic meter, an increase of 32%. In sharp contrast to this is the continuous decline in pig prices. The ex-factory price of urea has dropped from 2,900 yuan per ton to around 1,500 yuan per ton, and in the southwestern region, the production and sales prices for natural gas-based fertilizer and chemical enterprises are severely inverted.   Currently, there are over 100 gas-using chemical enterprises in the southwestern region, which consume nearly 10 billion cubic meters of gas per year. In 2024, the urea production capacity in Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, and Chongqing was approximately 8.3 million tons.   In response, the relevant enterprises once again urge that the Qitou fertilizer manufacturers in the southwest play a vital role in ensuring supply for spring plowing; these chemical enterprises are also an important foundation and support for the industrial sector in the southwest, possessing both strategic value and practical significance. It is hoped that **more attention will be paid to the survival and development of relevant enterprises, and that the natural gas pricing mechanism will be optimized so as to ensure the sustainable development of the natural gas chemical industry chain in the southwest.

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