In early July 2025, China's DMF prices surged due to a 3.4% rise in methanol feedstock costs and tight supply. High operating rates for DMF and methanol, coupled with port congestion and plant disruptions (e.g., Xinjiang Xinye, Yanzhou Coal), exacerbated spot market shortages. Strong demand from the PU resin sector, driven by low domestic inventories, further boosted DMF inquiries. Despite downstream caution and high inventories, manufacturers maintained firm prices, with the tight supply expected to keep prices consolidated at a high level short-term.
As July 2025 commenced, Dimethylformamide (DMF) prices in China saw a surge propelled by surging manufacturing costs driven by escalating feedstock methanol prices. The market's tightness, coupled with high operating rates, contributed to this upward momentum. Robust new orders from the downstream Polyurethane (PU) resin sector significantly boosted DMF inquiries, making the supply situation acutely tight and the shortage in the spot market difficult to alleviate.
Key Takeaways:
As per ChemAnalyst, the DMF prices in China are expected to consolidate at a lower rate in July 2025 due to the downstream off-season level, with foreseen smooth market shipments.
Due to an increase in the upstream methanol market, DMF prices in China had risen by 1% by the beginning of July 2025, with port activity demonstrating even more durability than mainland trends.
High operating rates were maintained for a number of methanol producers. Together with concentrated cargo, the lower-than-expected arrival of methanol at ports points to more short-term price hikes for this essential commodity.
A tighter domestic supply resulted from scheduled and unanticipated shutdowns of several Chinese feedstock methanol factories from mid-June to early-July 2025 owing to maintenance, technical problems, and floods at sites such Xinjiang Xinye and Yanzhou Coal. As of July 11th, the DMF market's supply situation was still tight, and it was really challenging to ease the spot market's shortfall.
The supply shortage was made worse by heavy port traffic. Qingdao and other northern Chinese ports were closed for 4–17 hours due to heavy fog. Indirectly affecting the movement of both raw materials and completed DMF products, this increased vessel waiting times and exacerbated already-existing port congestion, which in turn contributed to the tight spot market.
In terms of demand, the DMF market has experienced fair activity recently, though a prevailing wait-and-see attitude characterized the overall sentiment. Enterprise operating rates remained stable, with no new device maintenance announcements that would significantly impact demand.
Critically, the overall inventory within the downstream sectors was running at a high level. Downstream procurement remained active, albeit primarily based on immediate demand, resulting in slow shipments and difficulty in increasing actual orders.
A key driver of DMF inquiries was the high demand from the downstream PU resin sector for its production. The reduction in domestic inventory levels tightening local supply within China which further increased the inquiries of DMF in China.
