Since the third quarter of 2019, the acetone market has risen rapidly. Take the market offer in East China as an example. According to the monitoring of business associations, the market offer in East China on July 1 was 3100 yuan/ton, up to 4250 yuan/ton, with an overall increase of 37%. As follows:
Tendency Map of Acetone Manufacturers’Listing and Offering in East China

Tendency chart of national acetone market offer

As of September 11, the offer of acetone in various markets in China is as follows:

Regional Price Increase and Decline
East China 4250+100
Shandong Province 4250+150
Yanshan Peripheral Area 4150+50
South China 4300 + 100
The reason for the upstream market lies in the upward pull of cost and the high start of construction in the downstream industry.

1. Upstream raw material pure benzene entered July and also entered the fast ascending channel. According to the monitoring of business associations, the offer on July 1 was 4820 yuan/ton, and the average price on September 11 was 5531 yuan/ton, an overall increase of 14.75%. On the one hand, there is a shortage of pure benzene supply in the United States, and pure benzene from Korea is arbitraged to the United States, resulting in a reduction in the import of pure benzene from China, a sharp decline in port stocks and import volume, and the domestic price of pure benzene has begun to rise. On the other hand, domestic pure benzene stocks have declined and supply is tight.

2. The downstream isopropanol has risen sharply since the third quarter. According to the monitoring of business associations, the market price in East China offered 4100 yuan/ton on July 1 and nearly 6200 yuan/ton on September 11, with an overall increase of 31%.

At present, the profit of isopropanol plant is relatively objective, the start-up rate of the whole industry is relatively high, and the market demand for raw material acetone is also increasing. At present, other products downstream of acetone are starting to work smoothly, the purchase of acetone in isopropanol industry is at a high level, and the improvement of market atmosphere is gradually pushing up the acetone market, as can be seen from the figure below. The downstream is positively correlated. Since the third quarter, the market price trend of acetone and isopropanol is as follows:

3. Up to now, the starting rate of phenol ketone enterprises in China is about 80%. Yanshan Petrochemical 300,000 tons/year plant plan to stop and repair after Mid-Autumn Festival to National Day. Blue Star Harbin 150,000 tons/year phenol ketone plant and Shanghai Xisa Chemical 400,000 tons/year phenol ketone plant were all up to 80% of the operation. Port stocks are low, ocean-going costs are high, external prices are high, and imports are reduced except for contracts.

In summary, the current phenol ketone stimulus momentum is rising, and the market offer is constantly rising, but in terms of profit margin, phenol ketone factories with higher raw material costs have lower profit margin, so there is still room for phenol ketone to rise in the short term. Cost support, active downstream procurement, phenol ketone market is expected to remain high or continue to rise before the holidays.