In the second half of the Asian refined terephthalic acid market, there may be an oversupply. On the one hand, new production capacity will be put into production in the two major markets of India and China. On the other hand, market demand growth is slowing.
Market participants said that in the first half of this year, the Asian PTA market showed a tight supply situation due to the unplanned shutdown of some devices worldwide and the strong downstream demand.
In April, two sets of PTA installations in Belgium and Poland in Europe suffered unplanned supply disruptions, causing Asian PTA producers to export large quantities of goods to Europe, reducing intraregional supply. BP announced its PTA installation in Belgium on April 15. The force majeure occurred and the force majeure was announced for the second time on May 17. On April 23rd, PKN Orlen’s Wloclawek PTA device in Poland announced the occurrence of a force majeure event. Then on May 2th, the force majeure factors were lifted, but currently it comes from the The cash supply of the device is still limited, and it is not until the scheduled shutdown and maintenance of September-October this year that the normal supply can be resumed.
As a result of plant planning and unplanned downtime maintenance, China's PTA production decreased by approximately 1.34 million tons between January and June. The Southeast Asian market also experienced unplanned shutdowns of PTA plants and had to purchase PTAs from the Northeast Asian market over the past two months. Cargo. Hanwha Chemical Co., Ltd.'s 700,000-ton/year PTA plant in Dashan accidentally closed and announced the declaration of force majeure on May 21. The supply of PTA in Asian market was further tightened.
Under the tight supply of PTA, in the first half of 2018, the demand for polyester downstream market in Asia PTA grew strongly, especially in China. These two factors support the increase in PTA prices. The downstream polyester producers are in profit, so the raw materials PTA's demand remains robust.
Market analysts said that in the second half of the year, the main PTA production facilities in Asia will resume production after unplanned shutdowns, which will effectively ease the current tight supply situation. At the same time, the third quarter will usually be the low season for PTA demand. Therefore, new capacity will be affected. With the impact of production, Asian PTA prices will face downward pressure at that time.
India’s JBF Group’s 1.25 million tonne/year PTA plant in Mangalore is expected to start production in the third quarter, but several market participants stated that there is still a variable in the commissioning time of the plant. China’s Fuqing Petrochemical’s aromatics plant is experiencing After a prolonged shutdown, it is planned to resume operation in the third quarter of this year. In Europe, the Indolama Joint Venture plans to restart a set of 700,000 tons/year of idle PTA installations in Port Sines, Portugal in July. At the end of the year, the device was acquired from Portuguese company Artlant PTA.