1. Daily Summary

① Domestic phthalic anhydride (PA) market prices trended downward with slight declines.
② Today, the domestic PA capacity utilization rate rose to 57%.

2. Spot Market Overview

Table 1: Summary of Domestic Phthalic Anhydride Prices (Unit: CNY/ton)

Using the Jiangsu region as a benchmark, today's closing price for ortho-xylene process PA in Jiangsu was 10,500 CNY/ton, a decrease of 100 CNY/ton from the previous trading day, consistent with morning expectations. The decline in domestic PA market prices was driven by weakening cost support and rising expectations for increased industry capacity utilization, which intensified market wait-and-see sentiment.

3. Production Dynamics

Today, domestic PA capacity utilization rose to 57%, driven by the restart of units at Shanxi Sanqiang and Tangshan Kailuan, along with output from Hubei Nengtai. Regarding profitability, feedstock ortho-xylene prices remained stable while East China ortho-process PA market prices declined, resulting in a theoretical profit margin of 608 CNY/ton for the ortho-process sector. In Hebei, naphthalene-process PA prices fell while industrial naphthalene feedstock prices remained stable, yielding a theoretical profit margin of 935 CNY/ton for the naphthalene-process sector.

4. Price Forecast

Currently, cost support from the upstream aromatics chain is weakening. Coupled with expectations of higher capacity utilization in the domestic naphthalene-process PA sector, the tight supply-demand balance has eased somewhat, putting pressure on the market. Short-term domestic PA market price centers are expected to trend lower.

5. Related Products

Ortho-xylene Market: Prices in East China remained stable, referencing approximately 10,000 CNY/ton ex-works. Unit maintenance exacerbated tight supply conditions; however, major producers maintained stable prices, with downstream buyers primarily fulfilling existing contract orders.

DOP Market: Today, feedstock octanol prices declined, leading DOP market prices to follow suit. As the weekend approached, merchants actively shipped goods. In the afternoon, significant increases in upstream propylene prices moderately boosted buyer sentiment among DOP traders. With traders replenishing short positions, transactions improved for some low-priced cargoes.

6. Data Calendar

Table 2: Domestic Phthalic Anhydride Data List (Unit: 10,000 tons)