Prices of China's Chemical Raw Materials and Chemical Products Manufacturing Industry Dropped by 9% in 2023

Data released by the National Bureau of Statistics of China on January 12, 2024 show that in December 2023, affected by factors such as the continued decline of international oil prices and insufficient demand for some industrial products, the national PPI (industrial producer price index) fell month-on-month, the year-on-year decline narrowed.

From a month-on-month perspective, PPI fell by 0.3%, the same decline as last month. International oil prices continued to decline, driving prices in China's domestic oil and natural gas mining industry, petroleum coal and other fuel processing industries to fall by 6.6% and 3.0% respectively, and prices in the manufacturing industry of chemical raw materials and chemical products to fall by 0.7%.

From a year-on-year perspective, PPI fell by 2.7%, and the decline narrowed by 0.3 percentage points from the previous month. Among them, the price decreases of chemical raw materials and chemical products manufacturing industry, petroleum coal and other fuel processing industry, and oil and natural gas extraction industry were 6.3%, 5.8%, and 1.6% respectively, all of which narrowed.

Among the purchasing prices for industrial producers, the price of fuel and power fell by 7.2% year-on-year and 0.5% month-on-month; the price of chemical raw materials fell by 6.1% year-on-year and 0.7% month-on-month.

For the whole year of 2023, the ex-factory price for industrial producers fell by 3.0% compared with the previous year, and the purchasing price for industrial producers fell by 3.6%. Among them, the price decreases in the chemical raw materials and chemical products manufacturing industry, the petroleum, coal and other fuel processing industry, and the oil and natural gas extraction industry were 9%, 8.3%, and 10.2% respectively.