The Price of Phthalic Anhydride (TMA) Soars 276% This Year, Triggering Market Panic

In the chemical market, a niche product called trimeric anhydride (TMA) has emerged, showing an unprecedented surge in the market, and has become a dark horse on the list of chemical market increases. This year's increase of 276%, this amazing figure is remarkable. From the price chart, it can be clearly seen that from January to February, the TMA market remained stable, with the average price basically maintained at 15,300 yuan. However, after entering the second quarter, the average price of the market soared from 20,000 yuan in early April to 49,500 yuan, and from May to June, there was an astonishing increase of 20,000 yuan/ton in January, and the quarterly increase reached 147.5%. In July, the TMA price soared to 52,750 yuan, the highest point in the year.

As of October 22, the mainstream market price of TMA is about 52000-53500 yuan/ton, which is still at a high level. Due to the excessive increase, the current market trading is relatively flat, and most of the industry is wait-and-see.

The situation of tight supply is hard to change, and prices are rising rapidly. According to Guanghua Jun, the TMA industry belongs to the oligarchic competition market, and there are only 5 global production enterprises, respectively, Ineos, Berlin, Zhengdan, Baichuan and Teda New Materials, with a total annual production capacity of 255,000 tons. It is worth mentioning that the TMA production capacity of the domestic manufacturer Zhengdan shares reaches 85,000 tons/year, which is the largest TMA supplier in the world.

Because the market share is highly concentrated, once any one of the enterprises has an emergency, it may break the market supply balance, resulting in sharp price fluctuations. This highly concentrated market pattern makes TMA prices highly susceptible to the supply side, which in turn causes market volatility.