From August 10th to 14th, the domestic aggregated MDI market experienced narrow fluctuations, with an average price of 17866 yuan/ton at the beginning of the week and 17966 yuan/ton on August 14th. The weekly decline was 0.55%, while the year-on-year increase was 14.32%. There have been many tightening news on the supply side this week, but the support on the cost side has not decreased. There are many downstream inquiries, but actual transactions are limited. Intermediary quotes are relatively firm, but due to demand constraints, transaction prices have slightly loosened.

Supply side: The MDI plant with a production capacity of 80000 tons per year in Tosa, Japan, will be shut down for maintenance at the end of July, with a duration of approximately one month. The 200000 ton/year MDI plant in Tosa, Japan is scheduled to start shutdown and maintenance in early September, with a duration of about 45 days. The 1.1 million tons/year MDI plant in Wanhua Yantai Industrial Park will be shut down for maintenance starting from August 10, 2026, with an estimated maintenance period of about 45 days.
On the cost side, the pure benzene market is experiencing strong fluctuations. Due to the impact of typhoons, the unloading of pure benzene cargo has been postponed, inventory at Jiangsu’s main ports continues to decline, and the restart time of some pure benzene facilities has been delayed, resulting in lower than expected production returns. As a result, the focus of pure benzene negotiations has increased. Downstream varieties maintain negative demand feedback, resulting in overall low downstream load. Overall, although the increase in supply is slightly lower than expected, the demand side is still weak, so the rebound space for pure benzene is limited.
Demand side: Downstream demand inquiries are generally average, with small orders being the main focus and insufficient demand support.
Future forecast: There is an expectation of tight supply in the aggregated MDI market, and factories are willing to raise prices. However, the demand side support is weak, and it is expected that the aggregated MDI market will remain stagnant and operate in the short term. We will closely monitor market supply and demand as well as changes in the news side.