Cyclopentane (95%) prices at FOB Shanghai recorded one of the sharpest single-week advances in China's cyclopentane market history during the week ending March 13, 2026, driven by a catastrophic convergence of feedstock cost inflation, supply chain disruption, and an extraordinary surge in global export demand. The primary catalyst was the Strait of Hormuz blockade following the escalation of the Middle East conflict, which drove Brent crude to multi-year highs and simultaneously inflated naphtha, benzene, and cyclohexane input costs at Chinese cyclopentane production facilities across Shandong, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang provinces. On the supply side, war-risk insurance surcharges, vessel unavailability, and port congestion at Shanghai terminals tightened available export allocation severely — compressing spot availability at the worst possible moment. Simultaneously, global buyers from India, Southeast Asia, and Europe — unable to source Middle Eastern cyclopentane due to the complete disruption of Gulf shipping routes — pivoted urgently and exclusively toward FOB Shanghai supply as the sole large-volume available origin, competing aggressively for limited export tonnage and sustaining the extraordinary weekly price advance through March 13.
