For the Quarter Ending September 2022
North America
In the third quarter of 2022, demand from North American consumers for DL-methionine continued to drop, with CFR New York prices for food and feed grade settling at $5530/mt and $4057/mt in September. Because of China's zero-covid policy, imports of amino acids, including Methionine, to the US were severely restricted. The heat wave and power shortage forced the shutdown of numerous Chinese production facilities in the second half of Q3, and other companies that make various Amino Acids also went into maintenance, which had a detrimental impact on US trade. Many businesses and industries attributed the nation's declining demand to a variety of issues, such as inflation, supply shortages, and excessive interest rates.
Asia
The market trend for DL-methionine in the Asia Pacific region demonstrated a negative tendency, with September values for the food and feed grades settling at $4370/mt and $2850/mt, respectively. Raw material cost volatility, tepid consumer spending, and weak end-user industry demand are a few variables that have contributed to this pricing pattern. Big suppliers held off on placing large orders during the first half due to the sluggish offtakes and weak downstream demand. When the markets resumed operations in the final week of July following the shutdown, some manufacturing facilities, including Vega Pharma, Prumix, and others, were under maintenance, which impacted the product supply for both domestic and foreign suppliers. The market dynamics in China were also severely harmed this quarter by extreme weather and power outages.
Europe
Following a downward trend over the third quarter of 2022, the CFR Hamburg negotiations for Food grade and Feed grade Methionine in Germany were resolved at $4870/MT to $3420/MT in September. The on-and-off port restrictions in China made the business climate in Europe worse, together with the unrest in Russia and Ukraine. On the demand front, offtakes in the end-user industries during this quarter ranged from modest to stable. Additionally, this quarter witnessed a lackluster demand from the food and feed sectors.
