Higher Natural Gas Costs Fail to Lift US Methanol Prices Amid Ample Supply

US methanol prices held broadly stable during the week of August **, ****, as a *.** increase in natural gas feedstock costs was effectively neutralized by the progressive normalization of global methanol supply availability, subdued downstream procurement activity, and the partial resolution of the geopolitical supply disruptions that had driven extraordinary price volatility across the US Gulf Coast market through the second quarter — a period of equilibrium that reflected neither the acute upward pressure of the conflict peak nor the sharp corrections seen in mid-August.

The week of August ** represented a clear departure from the prior-quarter tightness, with the US market settling into a more balanced pricing phase as the conditions that had sustained elevated Q* assessments progressively unwound. North America was the priciest methanol market, with prices peaking near USD *.**/KG in Q* ****, with supply tightness and firm MTBE demand...