After sustained supply tensions in the first quarters of 2017 and 2018, the US isocyanate market began to ease. Buyers stated that pricing of diphenylmethane diisocyanate (MDI) and toluene diisocyanate (TDI) has recently stabilized, some Market participants even predict that prices of these two products may decline later this year.
Due to persistent supply shortages in 2017, isocyanate sellers continue to push up prices, and buyers are eagerly awaiting price reductions. It is estimated that in 2017, US TDI prices have risen by 75 cents/lb (approximately US$1,653/ton) in the same period. US MDI prices have risen by 53 cents/lb (approximately $1168/ton).
According to market participants, the harsh winter weather along the US Gulf Coast has resulted in the closure and encountering force majeure of some production devices of the US MDI and TDI products (US production facilities for these two products are concentrated in Texas and Louisiana), and North American isocyanates. Market supply has continued until the first quarter of this year.
At the end of January, BASF announced that the MDI monomer in the 300,000-ton/year MDI plant in Gasma, Louisiana, encountered force majeure, and the TDI at the 160,000-ton/year TDI plant also encountered force majeure. Dow Chemical also announced in late January. Its force at the 340,000 tonne/year MDI plant in Freeport, Texas, encountered force majeure.
At present, these force majeure has been lifted, and the increase in the supply of these two products in Asia has caused downward pressure on MDI prices in Asia and Europe. Currently, the market is waiting for BASF to restart 300,000 tons/year of TDI in Ludwigshafen, Germany. Factory part of the product line.
In 2017, the Ludwigshafen TDI plant was waiting for the installation of a new reactor while maintaining a low load rate. The plant was shut down in January this year to install a new reactor and restarted in late April.
Buyers in the MDI market stated that as North American plants moved into normal-load operation and Asian suppliers increased their supply to the North American market, market tensions eased. In 2017, the US market returned less than the Asian market. , And some Asian manufacturers have conducted plant shutdowns. Many Asian suppliers have reduced their supply of products to North America. In addition, China’s environmental supervision led to insufficient supply of raw materials and caused some Chinese factories to stop work, which also reduced the market supply of MDI. the amount.