Organics Prices Slip down

Feng Shiliang, CPCIA

Production in China's chemical industry remained to grow at a
high speed in October without any response to the declined
selling prices and slack demand. There were many newly
construction and expansion projects that started up in October,
which contributed a lot to the high growth rate.
   According to the statistics reported by China Petroleum and
Chemical Industry Association (CPCIA), among 65 kinds of bulk
petrochemicals and chemicals being tracked by CPCIA, 55 kinds
gained a positive growth in output compared with the same period
of 2005. There were 40 kinds of products that reached a
two-digits growth. The output of photo film rolls, glacial
acetic acid, polypropylene fiber and petroleum asphalt declined.
In particular the decrease rate of photo film rolls reached as
high as 94%, impacted by digit camera.
   Crude oil output remained a slow growth of 0.6% in spite of
hard work explorers paid. The growth rate of natural gas output
recorded 16.4%, comparing with 17.3% in October 2005. Refined
oil increased by 5.4% that is less than 6.1% in the same period
of 2005.
   Although chemical fertilizers are not needed in the season,
urea production achieved a 13.1% growth on the back of storage
policy. The output of herbicide increased by 33.5%, while the
insecticide production declined by 2.3%.
   The output of glacial acetic acid decreased by 10.3% compared
with the same period of 2005, which could not be simply explained
by slack demand. Resins and chemical fibers continued high
growth. The output of cis-1,4-polybutadiene rubber decreased by
16.8%, impacted by other substitutive rubbers.  
   The prices of around half of chemicals went down in October
when the crude oil price went down. Nearly all inorganic
chemicals had a price up. PVC (polyvinyl chloride) price went
down, so carbon carbide price followed. Chemical fertilizers
prices remained steadily under the control of government. ABS
(acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene) and polypropylene traders
cut down inventory, causing sell prices declined compared with
that in September 2006.