US acetonitrile export prices kept going up in the third week of August 2025 as a result of sustained demand, tight supply, and inflation. Foreign offers were also tight, leading to buyers' buying ahead as spot market supply dwindled. Increasing feedstock prices and a weakening US dollar helped enhance export competitiveness. Tightness from previous plant turnaround and low co-production under poor acrylonitrile demand also affected availability. Higher freight prices and supply chain bottlenecks helped drive costs, underpinning bullish market fundamentals and sustaining the rally on trade lanes worldwide.
US export prices for acetonitrile have continued a solid uptrend during the third week of August as well following the trend of the past week. This price rise continues ahead of various factors including the persistent demand rise, weaken inventories among the traders leading to tighten supplies, higher inflationary pressure and logistical constraints.
Initially starting with the demand side, the quotations from the overseas market continue to remain on the upper side. This has compelled traders to sustain sufficient inventories for Acetonitrile at their warehouses after the recent rebound in market production sentiments ahead of earlier plant maintenance shutdowns. However, ahead of persistent arrival of quotations, market players continue to report a quantifiable reduction in availability in the spot market, adding to prevailing supply-side stress.
Adding up to this further, the consistent rise in feedstock prices, and the overall cost of production for acetonitrile sustained on the upper side with traders focused on meeting the requirements. Backing this, additional weakness of the U.S. dollar has added more attractiveness to U.S. exports, which are more competitively priced for foreign buyers even as prices advance nominally. This exchange mechanism continues to support the offtake globally, supporting firm pricing on all major trade routes. Temporary though, the outage was, coincided with already depressed North American inventory levels. The impact of the disruption had a ripple effect on export supplies of acetonitrile high-purity grades for pharmaceutical and analytical end-use markets.
Alone, acetonitrile prices increased due to both supply-side constraints and inflationary pressures. Containing inflation, ongoing tariffs levied on manufacturing inputs maintained the support to production costs, particularly in large manufacturing hubs like India and China. Meanwhile, solid Acetonitrile demand from the pharmaceutical and pesticide sectors maintained supply-side pressure. Logistically, higher import levels and rising freight tightness—caused by carrier pullout and availability deficits—raised transportation costs and transit time. Cumulatively, these happened to cause a supply-demand imbalance and drive acetonitrile prices upward. Market response is proof of structural tenacity along with vulnerability to targeted inflation and logistics stress.
The overall market fundamentals are still bullish for acetonitrile. On the supply side, U.S. producers continue to operate below constrained production levels of prior maintenance cycles, and acrylonitrile—the principal product—continues to have lackluster demand under dismal ABS resin absorption. Therefore, fewer acetonitriles are being produced co-membership-wise, further constraining exportable cargoes on hand.
Logistical costs are also propelling acetonitrile's price increase. Transportation rates from U.S. Gulf Coast remain elevated due to repositioning containers and truck delays, despite the return of port operations to normal. These delays and elevated landed costs are being passed on to FOB prices for acetonitrile, month-over-month and week-over-week, thereby supporting the trend even in the middle of the august as well.
