Methanol prices in China’s Shandong are expected to stay firm in the near term on restocking activity due to tight supply. Plants scheduled turnarounds, and unexpected outages and unstable operations, of major methanol plants in September have tightened supply in Shandong. Outages at the two methanol plants of Shaanxi Shenmu Chemical forced the supply tightness.
The sudden shutdown of Shaanxi Yulin’s methanol units forced the company to purchase methanol from the local market for its downstream methanol-to-olefin plant. As per report, downstream buyers are replenishing their stocks ahead of China’s Mid-Autumn and National Day holidays, providing further support to methanol prices. The Mid-Autumn Festival is on 22-24 September, while China’s National Day celebration is on 1-7 October. Presently market sentiment is bullish as September and October are the traditional peak demand season for methanol.
