In the China polyester feedstock market, supply/demand is seen to be stack. For purified terephthalic acid (PTA), a major feedstock of polyesters, new production facilities are scheduled to start up going forward and supply is expected to increase. On the other hand, on the demand side, production cuts are taking place at factories producing end products and consumption of inventories at derivative makers is also slow. Therefore, demand for feedstock PTA is scarce. But PTA prices are supported by firm crude prices.

As for ethylene glycol (EG), inventories of mono ethylene glycol (MEG) are low at major ports in East China since delivery of imported cargoes is delayed due to the impact of typhoon. In addition, some EG facilities in China entered maintenance and supply is not ample. Operation rates at downstream polyester facilities are high but orders for end products are low and inventories of products are high. As a result, prices lack upward momentum.

In the paraxylene (PX) market, a new facility with annual production capacity of 1.00mil is scheduled to start up in the first half of August. But as a PTA facility with annual production capacity of 3.20mil mt is also scheduled to start operations, supply/demand of PX is still tight.