MTBE market weakens, profits narrow

Entering July, the methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) market changed from the continuous upward trend in the first half of the year, and turned down to start a downward tren.

Industry insiders generally believe that in the context of the intertwined long and short international crude oil market, the fundamentals of MTBE supply and demand will continue to be loose, the market outlook may continue to fluctuate weakly, and the profits of processing companies will continue to narro.

Significant price drop

Since July, the pessimism in the market has gradually accumulated, the international crude oil price has continued to fall, and the cost support has weakene.

According to Zhang Fan, an analyst at Fushun Petrochemical Company, the international crude oil market rose first and then declined in July, and suddenly fell sharply in the latter half of the year, falling below the 100-yuan mark again, weighing heavily on the marke.

"From the perspective of the market outlook, the fundamentals of crude oil supply and demand are intertwine.

Supply and demand fundamentals are loose

From the perspective of MTBE supply and demand fundamentals, domestic supply continues to increase and external demand weakens, resulting in increased pressure on manufacturers to shi.

According to Ren Tingting, an analyst at Zhuochuang Information, in July, the MTBE units that had been shut down for maintenance in the early stage resumed their normal operation one after anothe.

In terms of demand, although domestic demand is expected to increase slightly, with the closure of the export arbitrage window, the number of new orders for domestic MTBE exports is relatively limited, resulting in increased pressure on MTBE manufacturers to shi.

In early August, Shandong Chengtai New Materials MTBE quotation was around 7,350 yuan, a cumulative decrease of 1,300 yuan from the beginning of July; Shi Dashenghua's quotation was 7,350 yuan, a cumulative decrease of 1,250 yuan from the beginning of Jul.

For the market outlook, Ren Tingting analyzed that there is still a slight increase in MTBE production expected in August, and the demand may hardly see improvemen.

corporate profit compression

Although MTBE has shown a wide decline since July, the overall market price is still at a relatively high leve.

"At present, the profit margins of traditional plants and isomerization plants are acceptable, while isobutane dehydrogenation plants have entered a state of los.

In terms of isomerization unit, although the price of C4 after raw ether is high and the cost pressure is relatively large, it still maintains a profitable stat.

　　In terms of isobutane dehydrogenation units, the price of raw material isobutane continued to be maintained at a high level, and the manufacturer ended the profitability status of the past two months and entered a loss, but the overall loss was smal.

　　On the whole, the current operating rate of MTBE units remains at a high level of around 57.