The price rise will be sustained by strong support from benzene and increasing domestic as well as international demand along with relaxations of restrictive measures imposed due to COVID-19. Suppliers with high inventory sold their stock by the end of May 2021 and they are not ready to promote sales under losses.
An increase of 26.95 per cent was observed during January-March 2021 as the price went from 10,909.52 yuan per mt in January 2021 to 13,850 yuan per mt in March 2021, according to Fibre2Fashion’s market analysis tool TexPro.
Most of the caprolactam plants in China remained closed during the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday, from February 7 to February 18, 2021. During the holiday, crude oil market moved up and sustained benzene prices. Benzene prices surged immediately after the market reopened, and caprolactam prices followed suit.
After the increase in Q1, the price dropped by 5.09 per cent in April 2021 over the price in March 2021 due to sluggish demand and higher inventory stocks. It again recovered in May 2021 to reach 13,783.33 yuan per mt, recording a surge of 4.85 per cent over the price in April 2021. It showed a slight fluctuation and moved down to 13,229.17 yuan per mt in June 2021.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KD)