Why global textile raw material prices are on the rise?

06 Oct '21

3 min read

Pic: Shutterstock

Crude oil prices are rising consistently to cater to the increasing demand from consumers, thus causing textile raw material prices to increase. Crude oil prices are rising due to higher crude oil inventory draw, widespread floods and power outages due to heavy rains in Texas and Louisiana, as per the American Petroleum Institute’s (API) and Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) report.

Also, hurricane Nicholas, that hit the Gulf of Mexico in mid-September, brought heavy rain, strong winds and flooding to the Texas coast and northern Gulf Coast, resulting in a disruption of crude oil supply chain and impacting the energy output in the US.

Additionally, some members of Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) such as Kazakhstan, Nigeria and Angola are facing maintenance issues while extracting crude oil due to the pandemic, which tightened the supply of crude oil across the world and supported the price rise.

The bullish US equity markets and OPEC and its allies’ expectation of a steady pace in raising crude oil supply further kept the prices up.

The weekly average of brent crude price was $73.98 per barrel in July 2021, which dropped to $70.36 per barrel in August 2021, declining by 4.90 per cent. It recovered in September 2021 to reach $75.78 per barrel with a rise of 7.71 per cent over the weekly average in August 2021, according to Fibre2Fashion’s market analysis tool TexPro.

The weekly average price of Nymex crude and WTI Cushing dropped by 6.64 per cent from $72.20 per barrel in July 2021 to $67.41 per barrel in August 2021. It increased again by 7.26 per cent to reach $72.31 per barrel in September 2021.

As crude oil gets expensive, prices of textile raw materials like polyester staple fibre, nylon chips and acrylonitrile are also on a rise.

The Free on Board (FOB) NE Asia price of polyester staple fibre has been fluctuating since July 2021. It was $1,011 per metric ton in the first week of July 2021. The price then increased to $1,035 per metric ton in the last week of July 2021 and dropped again to $975 per metric ton in the last week of August 2021. However, it rose again by 4.11 per cent to $1,015 per metric ton in the last week of September 2021.

The price of nylon chips in the Chinese market went up from $16,320 per metric ton in the first week of July 2021 to $16,400 per metric ton in the last week of August 2021. It further surged by 13.72 per cent to $18,650 per metric ton in the last week of September 2021, according to TexPro.

As for acrylonitrile, its FOB US Gulf price was $2,020 per metric ton in the first week of July 2021, which moderately increased to $2,122 per metric ton in the last week of August 2021. It continued to increase to reach $2,350 per metric ton in the last week of September 2021.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KD)

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