In August 2025, Indian BHT prices fell due to weak industrial demand, particularly from plastics and rubber. The number of domestic production units and sustained levels of imports, and mixed freight rates hurt, prevailing over supply even worse. While food, cosmetics, and pharma demand remain steady, the insight on firm establishment growth expectations does not make up for the severely crippled outlook towards industrial demand. Going forward, adverse weather and increasing energy costs threatens any recovery even during the coming festive season.
In August 2025, Butylated Hydroxytoluene (BHT) prices in India continued to decline, following a downward trend that began in July. This decline in prices was primarily due to very weak industrial demand in general, particularly strong weakness from almost non-existent demand for plastics and rubber. Manufacturers of automotive tires and components cut orders in many cases, with slow global export sales and seasonal production break shutdowns. BHT Demand remained steady from food, cosmetics and pharmaceutical sectors, but this was not sufficient to offset the overall industrial weakness to support rebalancing of prices.
Supply conditions remained good, which was also having a further negative impact on BHT price. Domestic production remained strong, with steady imports from major Asian suppliers, particularly China, adding to the stocks and burdens of availability. Feedstock costs, particularly isobutylene prices, remained very stable and had only seen a very small price increase in July that put very little upward cost pressure on BHT. Logistics had a large impact. According to reports, Intra- Asia freight rate fell by 9%, in the first half of August, the lowest price since November 2024. This was a 35% year-on-year decrease, helping to keep costs low and support the current oversupplied BHT market position.
The future positioning for BHT pricing is expected to continue to be soft moving forward, with an expected further 1% decrease in August before it rebounds slightly in subsequent months. The prediction is based on several key indicators, which include falling freight rates, stable feedstock prices or costs, and available inventories. There are ongoing seasonal issues caused by the monsoon impacting supply chains within India, while the upcoming festive season may provide further support for food, and films/pharmaceutical applications provided the positive draft for BHT prices. However, there are also rising energy prices along with demand remaining stable from the pharmacy industry that may hinder any recovery festivity, curtailing price recovery potential.
At the same time, the domestic phenol (raw material) market remains stable for the most part with occasional fluctuations. In East China prices decreased 0.6% in early August, however, traders have shipment delays to deal with and limited mechanisms to anneal margins. In addition, the luxury beauty market in India has registered a strong growth. Skincare and cosmetics-based imports totaled USD 171.9 million in FY25 in terms of volume, which should provide steady demand for BHT in the cosmetic space.
In summary, August has accounted for yet another month of price pressure for the BHT markets being influenced that month by low industrial activity levels, strong supplier factors, and favourable shipping conditions. In short, the BHT markets remain cautious as they wait for signs of demand to recover.
