For the Quarter Ending June 2022
North America
The cost of natural gas has risen severely in the USA, which has put enormous strain on manufacturers' ability to control input costs and maintain total profitability. However, some information from a reliable market source claims that Russian material was entering the US and European markets through various trade routes, i.e., traders were attempting to purchase cheaper cargoes from Russia and sell in the foreign market. According to ChemAnalyst data, there was a price increment of about 1% in the USA during April, which persisted for a longer duration under certain market assumptions.
Asia
Since the covid situation in China has become more serious, the Asian market has been exhibiting different market characteristics. The country experienced the worst pandemic since 2020, which decreased the fundamentals of general demand for several commodities, including Ethyl Acrylate. However, the country's domestic trade activities were disrupted by the sharp increase in upstream value, resulting in a marginal increase of 1 to 2 percent in April. On the other hand, Indian players continued to worry about offtakes as queries from downstream specialty buyers vanished, and stockpiles remained sufficient to meet the nation's overall demand. According to a Mumbai-based trader, exporters negatively updated their product's prices for the Indian market due to stable to dull demand from the local market, even though domestic material supply was abundant. As a result, April saw a slight drop in CFR prices in India of 0.2 percent.
Europe
High Natural gas costs and supply disruption due to the Russia-Ukraine war has been a major concern for Europe since February, leading to a consistent price hike in several commodities, including Ethyl Acrylate. However, some information from a reliable market source claims that Russian material was entering the US and European markets through various trade routes, i.e., traders were attempting to purchase cheaper cargoes from Russia and sell in the foreign market. Furthermore, consistent hikes in input costs affected the pricing dynamics for several commodities, including Ethyl Acrylate in the European market.
For the Quarter Ending March 2022
North America
North American Acrylate market has been on uptrend since the first week of this year, owing to steep price escalation in price of upstream crude oil under the influence of in Ukraine Russia war. The conflict between Ukraine and Russia, started showing its effect on crude oil value from January, as it was affecting global market sentiments. Consequently, several upstream commodities were getting expensive week over week in the US market, due to the inflationary pressure on convertors. However, US government tried to calm prices by releasing strategic reserves and urged key economies like India, China, Japan, etc. to do the same. Despite all these initiatives, Ethyl Acrylate price showcased an overall uptrend and assessed around USD 2680/MT on spot purchases during February.
Asia Pacific
Asian Acrylate market showcased mixed sentiments during this quarter, which varied with country over country. Cost pressure of rising crude oil value has been observed on several acrylates in the Asian market, prompted by escalated tension between Russia and Ukraine. Russia-Ukraine tension has been injecting uncertainties across global market since the mid of January, which was pushing up prices of global crude and natural gas. However, due to sluggish offtakes from the domestic market, traders were restrained to make significant price revisions on their imported commodities in India, despite imported prices were getting expensive month over month. Ethyl Acrylate price assessed around USD 3100/MT for spot purchases during February in India.
Europe
Soaring crude oil value coupled with rising energy prices in the European market pushed key players to raise their offers to sustain margin. Being highly dependent upon Russia for Natural gas imports, Acrylate manufacturers battered with looming threat of scarcity for the natural gas, which made then anxious about margins. However, later on, due to heavy sanctions on Russia by major European economies like Germany and UK, Natural gas futures spiralled out and injected great turmoil across regional market. Conclusively, taking pressure from abovementioned reasons Ethyl Acrylate price soared in Europe throughout the quarter amid stable demand from the regional market.
Ethyl Acrylate price remained range bounded throughout the quarter in effect of lacklustre demand and deteriorating raw material cost. After witnessing devastation due to freezing weather during February, US market was on recovery phase, where supplies eventually started to normalise prices of several commodities including raw material Acrylic Acid. Raw material Acrylic Acid kept its downtrend continue throughout the quarter and a decline of more than USD 100/MT was observed within three months. On the other hand, crude oil price decayed during November under the threat of rising Omicron variant across global market, which also supported this downtrend for raw material as well as product. Ethyl Acrylate price assessed around USD 2380/MT during December in USA.
Asian market battered with frequent change in pricing dynamics due to supply related issues from major exporting nations. In China, coal shortage during monsoon season and later production cuts imposed under the provision of energy policy, escalated the prices of several raw materials across regional market. The ripple effect of devastation in China was also observed in Indian market, where the demand fundamentals remained high on the back of festive season arrived during November. However, high raw material Acrylic Acid prices shoot up the cost of manufacturing of downstream derivatives and narrowed down the profit margin. Manufacturers heard battling with high input cost while resisting themselves from increasing their product prices to sustain offtakes. Ethyl Acrylate price heard hovering around USD 3330/MT during November.
Due to effectively high raw material prices and enormous rise in energy cost i.e., natural gas, several commodities prices touched a sky-high value during this timeframe. Frequency of changing market dynamics of USA also influenced European market and similar trend was observed for Ethylene Acrylate as USA. Despite, firm offtakes and high energy cost was pushing up prices of several commodities across Europe, Ethyl Acrylate fluctuated in a narrow range throughout the quarter. Ethyl Acrylate prices were already hovering at very high value, which remained a major reason behind overall stability during November and December. Ethyl Acrylate prices assessed around USD 2242/MT during December.
