Wavering Offtakes Affect the Price of Meth Acrylic Acid in Asia

The global economic slowdown has been hampering the pricing dynamics of several commodities, including Acrylates and other Acrylic Acid derivative markets. The latest assessment shows Meth Acrylic Acid prices have declined in the Asian market due to wavering offtakes and shrunken raw material costs.

Data shows a 2.5% decline in the Indian market this month, bolstered by depressed demand from the domestic and international markets. In the Indian market, feedstock Acrylic Acid prices declined during the past few weeks due to cheaper imports from China and wavering demand from domestic downstream buyers.

Similarly, China, which has recently rebounded from the worst pandemic hit, is struggling to gain traction in its economic activities. Thus, the demand for several commodities remained lackluster, including Acrylic Acid, which eventually plunged in the domestic market, and, as a consecutive effect price of downstream derivatives also fell effectively. Furthermore, this decline has also been observed in other regional countries like India and South Korea.

South Korean players have also been influenced by cheaper imports of commodities, including Meth Acrylic Acid. According to the data, a significant fall of around 2.4% has observed during July 2022, primarily driven by cheaper imports and diminishing queries from the domestic market. The South Korean market has been facing a shortage of some commodities especially related to the automotive sector, while some other commodities remained plentiful to satisfy the need of the country. Meth Acrylic Acid came under the plentiful category as the demand-supply gap narrow enough to support a consistent downtrend.

As per the ChemAnalyst analysis, prices of Meth Acrylic Acid may not recover anytime soon in the regional market of Asia. The diminishing offtakes and low raw material costs in major Asian economies like India, China, and South Korea will not soon vanish.