The Chinese Para Aminophenol market took a sharp turn in January and started to gain some real traction, reversing the slowdown seen in December. Rather than continuing to slide in the last month of the year on the back of weaker export demand and plenty of supply to go round, Para Aminophenol prices started to pick up again through January as pharma buyers started stockpiling ahead of the year. The fact that major paracetamol producers started to show a serious interest in buying, combined with buyers getting a bit more cautious about restocking and the last spot availability being a bit tighter than usual, all helped to keep the price up in the second half of the month. With suppliers feeling confident enough to stick to their firmer offers, while buyers are more concerned about stocking the material, they need for their short-term production plans. All this added up to a decent rebound for the market, but it's worth noting that February doesn't look quite so rosy. Expectations are that the demand that usually picks up after the holidays will turn out to be soft this year, and with buyers relying more and more on what they've already got in storage, which should be plenty, given the decent supply levels. It's likely that with all that extra caution and no reason to rush back into buying, the market will see a bit of a price pullback over the next few weeks in February.
