Epoxy Resin to Witness Mixed Market Sentiments in Asia as the Year Concludes

The overall market sentiments of Epoxy Resin in the whole of Asia appeared to be varied for the past three months (From August to October) and maintained a similar trajectory.

In China, the market of Epoxy Resin was affected by several factors. The key factor which brought down the prices was the shortage of power supply, because of which the production activities in both upstream, as well as downstream companies got affected. The companies were able to stop or reduce their manufacturing activities. SINOPEC, a major Epoxy Resin manufacturer, had shut down one of its production facilities because of a lack of power supply.

Electronics, coatings, and adhesives industries that use Epoxy Resin for their numerous production purposes were found to have a nominal interest in this product because of inadequate power supply for downstream processing. The other factor was the implementation of a zero covid strategy by various provincial governments, which significantly affected the production rates in downstream and upstream companies. So, in October, the average price of Epoxy Resin stood around USD 3,100 to 3,150 per MT for liquid grade EEW 176-183 on FOB – Huangshan basis.

Apart from these factors, the reduction in costs of epichlorohydrin and bisphenol A, which, because of the upstream crude oil market's underperformance, had also impacted the costs of Epoxy Resin in China.

However, ChemAnalyst forecasts the market scenario of Epoxy Resin in China to change in the upcoming months. It anticipates the downstream companies in both countries to come up with more procurement orders for this product to manufacturing end–products and has predicted the market to grow by almost 6.5% by the end of this year.

In the case of Japan, like the Indian and Chinese markets, this product's market was affected by the diminished prices of base compounds used in the production of this product and by the moderate demand that the downstream companies were showing toward this product. The Japanese markets followed an identical course to that of China. The firm expects the market to decline by 3% by year-end.

When it comes to India, the Epoxy Resin market remained almost stable for a while until August and started witnessing a downfall later on. The Indian market was driven by the demand this product received from companies for downstream processing. Lowered prices of raw materials used in Epoxy Resin production also influenced the costs of this product. As of 28th October 2022, the cost of this product for grade EEW 185 was about USD 3,032 on a CFR – JNPT basis. ChemAnalyst expects the Indian market to continue following the same trend as that of Japan and go down by 7% further by the end of this year.