Affected by rising raw material costs and tight supply, BASF began to increase PA66 by US$300/ton (RMB1880/ton) on April 15. It is reported that due to improvement in supply and demand in the industry, the domestic PA66 market has increased its price since February of this year. 14%, up to 43% since 2017.
PA66 is mainly used in the field of chemical fiber and engineering plastics. It is synthesized from hexamethylenediamine and adipic acid to prepare nylon 66 salt. The raw material hexanediamine is obtained from hydrogenation of adiponitrile. The production process of adiponitrile as the core raw material is produced by INVISTA. The international giants such as Solvay and Austere have taken control, so domestic companies have not massively expanded PA66 production capacity. For domestic companies, only Shenma Group (600810), Huafeng and Guorui have polymerization capabilities, with a total capacity of 325,000 tons. Among them, Shenma Group (600810) and Guorui possess the capacity of hydrogenation of adiponitrile to produce hexamethylenediamine, while Huafeng requires outsourcing of hexamethylenediamine.
From a global perspective, the overall supply and demand of PA66 is relatively balanced, with a total aggregate capacity of approximately 3 million tons. The actual demand is near 2.6 million tons, and maintains a growth rate of 3%-4%. Since the second half of 2017, there have been frequent cases of force majeure by foreign manufacturers. The supply of products has been significantly reduced, and the industry's supply and demand have substantially improved. Shenma is a leading nylon chemical company in China with a cutting capacity of 140,000 tons. The participating company, Nylon Chemical (49%), owns 140,000 tons of hexamethylenediamine.