Plant Maintenance Boosts PTA Price Up Slightly

According to the price monitoring of business agency, the current price of domestic PTA continued to strengthen slightly yesterday (September 6), with the average price of spot market at 4884 yuan / ton, a daily increase of 0.14%, and a year-on-year increase of 35.55%. The main futures 2201 closed at 4908, up 12, or 0.25%.

In terms of supply, Sinopec's 1.2 million ton PTA plant will be shut down on August 6, 2021 and restart on September 6, 2021. Honggang Petrochemical's 2.4 million ton unit is planned to be overhauled on September 7, with half of the production capacity about 10 days. At present, the operating rate of PTA industry is around 81%.

In terms of raw materials, there are still concerns about the increase of supply, and the pressure on oil prices is weakening. As of September 3, the settlement price of main contracts in the U.S. WTI crude oil futures market was at US $69.29/barrel, while the settlement price of main contracts in Brent crude oil futures market was at $72.61/barrel. Cost side support is relatively limited.

As the terminal market demand has not improved significantly, the downstream Jiangsu and Zhejiang polyester market trading is relatively flat, polyester industry operating rate is around 84%, PTA demand performance is relatively weak. In terms of price, the prices of mainstream factories in Jiangsu and Zhejiang are stable temporarily, among which polyester POY (150D / 48F) is quoted at 7250-7400 yuan / ton.

Business agency analysts believe that PTA prices rose slightly today, boosted by plant maintenance, but the production capacity of new units moved up, and subsequent maintenance plan PTA decreased, PTA supply increased. In addition, it is difficult to significantly improve the downstream polyester plant. As the supply will be improved and the demand side performance is relatively weak, PTA social library is in a slightly accumulated inventory state, and PTA price is expected to run in a weak shock. In the near future, it is necessary to pay attention to the start-up of domestic demand for terminals in the traditional peak season in September.