Despite Dramatic drop in MMA prices in China, PMMA prices reported to be constant across Asia
In this week, the prices of MMA in China were rolled over to $1800/ton contract CFR Qingdao and observed to be constant across the Asian region with dramatic deflection. The weak market demand in the Asian region was driven by feeble trading as many downstream customers in China were heard to shutting down from middle January for the New Year Lunar Holiday and the pessimistic economy outlook as a result of the Covid-19 new variant – Omicron pandemic crisis. However, MMA plant shutdown due to hovering crude oil and logistics cost along with port congestion hindered product delivery in the parts of America and Asia. As a result, MMA producers hesitate to decrease the prices further and compelled to rollover throughout the January. In Southeast Asia, market demand was stabilized, and most downstream cast steel producers hesitate to build up the inventories prior to New Year and operated their plant with low productivity in order to keep their inventories stagnant. Vietnamese...