Recently, Sinopec raised its offer for half-light chips this month to 11,800 yuan/ton, which is 500 yuan/ton higher than before. And there are further market rumors that Sinopec will continue to raise the price of 500 yuan / ton. If this news is true, the major price squeezing action of the domestic quotation system will undoubtedly reflect the fact that the polyester chip market is a helpless one. Under the pressure of cost, slice companies have already been overwhelmed.
At this point, PTA, a polyester raw material, soared to a position of 9,600 yuan/ton. If the PTA 9850 yuan / ton, MEG 9550 yuan / ton settlement price to equivalent to July polyester chip costs, the cost of semi-slicing is close to 12,300 yuan / ton. At present, the spot transaction price is difficult to break through 11,800 yuan/ton. Judging from the current market conditions, the $500 gap cannot be reduced.
As early as in the second half of last year, the market's end of the MEG price hike has already made people see how chipping is in the polyester industry chain. In the downturn of the textile industry, the market price gap between sliced ​​spinning filaments and straight spinning filaments has been reduced from 400 to 500 yuan/ton to 200 yuan/ton, and the living space for chip spinning is decreasing. This has caused some spinning and spinning companies to open up new roads and transfer them to different areas. The current popular PTT fiber in Shengze area is a typical example. This will undoubtedly reduce the market demand for conventional slices.
On the other hand, since the profit margin for the production of polyester filaments is greater than that of chips, under the pressure of enormous cost pressures, spinning enterprises will inevitably place a heavy emphasis on the production of polyester filaments and reduce the production of chips in polyester devices. However, some other slicing companies with relatively large production volumes also used spinning lines after the installation if conditions permit. For example, last year, Huaxi Village changed the Great Light section production device into a light staple fiber production device; Zhejiang Xiangsheng’s Daguangguang slice device was equipped with a POY spinning line; this year’s Zhejiang Kangxin short fiber device was equipped with a POY spinning line; Shanghai Hengyi, Jiangsu Desai, and Jiangsu Jinxue all have the idea of ​​using spun yarns on existing slicing equipment.
Although this situation has eased the pressure of market supply due to the decrease in demand, it also truly reflects the status of “passive victims” of polyester chips in the polyester industry chain. As far as the current situation is concerned, the price increase following the PTA price increase is the only way for slice companies to survive. However, this survival path must have downstream support, otherwise it will surely fall into a dead angle that cannot be turned around. The situation of pricelessness and market that has emerged today is predicting the advent of this dead end, and it also indicates that a large area of ​​limited production and insurance prices is coming.