Acrylic Acid Market Weakness Persists, Price Levels Decline

September 1st News

Entering September 2025, the market price of acrylic acid continues to be under pressure. As of September 1st, the benchmark price of acrylic acid is 6,250.00 CNY/ton, a decrease of 6.02% compared to the beginning of last month (6,650.00 CNY/ton). This is mainly due to the continued weakness in demand, with downstream players adopting a wait-and-see attitude, maintaining only rigid demand procurement, and showing very little willingness to stockpile.

The current market downturn is the result of multiple factors acting on both supply and demand sides.

1. Supply pressure continues to increase: In the second half of 2025, China's acrylic acid industry still has over 600,000 tons, even up to 740,000 tons, of new capacity planned for commissioning (such as the Shandong Lanwan and Tianjin Bohua plants). This further intensifies the supply pressure in the industry. Although the industry's operating rate is maintained at a moderate low level of around 68%, attempting to balance supply and demand by reducing load, the social inventory remains moderately high, and inventory pressure persists.

2. Demand performance is weak: The main downstream sectors (such as coatings, adhesives, and textile auxiliaries) show insufficient purchasing enthusiasm, generally holding a bearish or cautious attitude, focusing mainly on replenishing inventory based on rigid demand, with widespread price-cutting behavior. The export market is also not optimistic; in the first half of 2025, China's butyl acrylate export volume decreased by 13.42% year-on-year, unable to effectively alleviate China's supply pressure. Traditional demand sectors (such as oil extraction, water treatment, and papermaking) are affected by the global economic slowdown, making it difficult to see significant growth.

3. Cost Support vs. Market Dynamics: Although the price of propylene, the primary raw material, has risen slightly since early August—reaching a benchmark price of 6,663.25 CNY/ton on September 1, up 3.58% from the beginning of last month (6,433.25 CNY/ton)—at current price levels, some manufacturers are already operating near their break-even point or even incurring losses. As a result, producers have very limited room to offer discounts, leading to a strong willingness to maintain prices. The market is currently caught in a fierce tug-of-war between "cost support" and "weak demand."

Future Outlook

In the short term, the acrylic acid market in China will continue to maintain a low-range consolidation trend, with limited upside and downside space. Unless there is an unexpected improvement in demand (such as large-scale concentrated purchasing by downstream players or a significant increase in export orders), or a substantial rise in the price of propylene (the cost end), prices will be hard to sustain an upward trend. If the price of propylene at the cost end experiences a collapse, or if downstream demand remains persistently weak, high inventory levels and weak demand will continue to suppress the market.

From a medium to long-term perspective, the acrylic acid industry in China is undergoing a transition from "scale competition" to an "era of technology premium." Leading enterprises are building barriers through technological iteration and industrial chain integration (such as Satellite Chemical, Huayi Group), while small and medium-sized enterprises, due to insufficient technological investment, find it difficult to meet high-end demands (such as medical-grade and electronic-grade acrylic acid), thus facing increased survival pressure.

In summary, the current market's core characteristics in China are the intense confrontation between "weak demand" and "high costs," leading to a situation where prices are caught in a dilemma, with the overall focus shifting downward. Market participants generally maintain a wait-and-see attitude.