January activity in the US guar gum market featured a price ascent driven by tight Indian export availability and oilfield demand, with Gulf Coast inventories thin. Early signals showed light guar-seed arrivals in India, prompting higher export-grade offers for February loadings; by January's end, port stocks were lean as importers postponed restocking. Steady completion activity across major shale basins kept service-company offtake elevated, while food, beverage, and personal-care formulators maintained cautious, hand-to-mouth buying. This created an upward bias heading into February. Demand was bifurcated: oilfield fluids remained the dominant driver, absorbing the bulk of supply, with hydraulic-fracturing fluids representing a majority of consumption; consumer and cosmetics segments offered modest, ongoing demand. The market advanced with a 14.6% month-on-month rise, and India–US freight relief was limited in offsetting higher origin costs, even as a weather-related force majeure trimmed a small volume. Looking ahead, the near-term outlook remains mixed but biased toward continued support, with gains into February–March and spring softening thereafter.
