European Acrylonitrile Prices Show Bearish Trend Amidst Inadequate Supplies

The Acrylonitrile price trend remained stagnant at the beginning of November 2023 amid moderate offtakes and inadequate supplies in the market. As per the market sources, the Eurozone's manufacturing Purchasing Manager's Index fell again and remained below 50 at the end of October 2023, indicating a further decline in the manufacturing sector activities. With the drop in the country's purchasing manager index, the product supply rates were slightly affected amid declining operating rates due to the plant shutdown activities. According to the ChemAnalyst sources, INEOS Nitriles in Cologne, with an Acrylonitrile production capacity of 26667 TPM, was under maintenance shutdown during October 2023. It affected the availability of supplies in the regional market. Furthermore, trading activities remained low due to public holidays in Northwest and Southwest Europe.

Simultaneously, the demand for Acrylonitrile remained moderately low from downstream Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene and Nitrile Butadiene Rubber industries amid a decline in procurement activities and availability of previous stocks. Meanwhile, orders from Styrene Acrylonitrile manufacturers were stable amid moderate inquiries from end-user consumers. On the contrary, inquiries were firm from Acrylic Acid manufacturers due to the high demand for acrylic fibers during winter.

Meanwhile, the cost support was firm on the Acrylonitrile key feedstock Propylene amid the weak availability of upstream Propane supplies in the exporting country from the past few weeks. Simultaneously, the cost support was also high on feedstock Ammonia from the past few weeks amid tight availability of supplies in the market and escalation in demand from fertilizer manufacturers due to increased applications during the winter crop planting season. Simultaneously, an escalation in upstream Natural Gas prices amid rising demand for winter further impacted the Ammonia and Acrylonitrile production rates.

In the second week of November 2023, the Acrylonitrile market showcased bearish sentiments in the European market due to a decline in upstream cost support on Natural Gas and improved availability of Nitrogen fertilizers. It eased the cost support on feedstock Ammonia. However, the price trend oscillated again in the 3rd week as prices increased due to firm cost support from feedstock Propylene.

According to the ChemAnalyst data sources, the Acrylonitrile prices in Germany reached USD 1365/MT at the end of the third week of November 2023.

As per the estimation, the Acrylonitrile price will improve in the European market in the upcoming weeks. The reason is the increase in the input costs amid the escalation in upstream Natural Gas prices during the winter. Furthermore, the stressed availability of Acrylonitrile supplies and improvement in procurement activities from the regional buyers will result in a demand-supply gap, and suppliers will raise their quotations.