Wanhua, BASF, Huntsman MDI Shutdown Or Overhaul, The Global MDI Capacity Loss Of Nearly 30%!

In the past month, several international chemical giants have announced MDI plant overhaul one after another, and up to now, the global capacity of the MDI plant that has been affected has reached 2.86 million tonnes, accounting for 28% of the global capacity and close to 30% of the market share. Several chemical giants’ MDI units announced overhaul, which may bring a big impact on the market. 9 July 2024, Wanhua Chemical released an announcement on the shutdown and overhaul of MDI, TDI and other integrated units in Yantai Industrial Park, which involves MDI (1.1 million tonnes/year), TDI (0.3 million tonnes/year), and other integrated units and related ancillary units, with overhaul time of about 45 days, and preliminary plan is to complete the overhaul at the end of August. At the end of July 2024, Hungarian Bausch & Lomb’s MDI plant has been stopped for maintenance since July 16, affecting the capacity of 470,000 tonnes/year, and the specific recovery time is to be determined. on July 26, 2024, Dongcao Rui’an’s 80,000 tonnes/year plant started to be overhauled, and the estimated time of overhauling will be about 35 days, with the resumption time around the end of August. 

Meanwhile, Kumho 410,000 tonnes/year unit failed to stop and shut down on the night of July 23, the specific start-up time is to be determined.2024 On August 1, Chongqing BASF unit stopped for maintenance, affecting the capacity of 400,000 tonnes/year, the initial maintenance time is about 14 days, and it is planned to start up in the middle of August.2024 On August 5, Huntsman’s 470,000 tonnes/year MDI and its related products, which are located in Rozenburg, the Netherlands, are due to Shell’s investment in Huntsman’s 470,000 tonnes/year MDI and its related products. products, Huntsman’s feedstock supply is insufficient due to maintenance at Shell’s ethylene unit at Huntsman. At present, Huntsman MDI plant is running at low load, the specific recovery time is to be determined. From the statistics of the units that have started maintenance, the earliest recovery time is in mid-August, initially expected to be 400,000 tonnes/year. Other devices, most of them in 2024 at the end of August successively restored, the whole August global MDI supply is expected to significantly reduce more than 2 million tonnes, for the impact of global MDI can not be underestimated.

According to the distribution of MDI capacity in different countries around the world, China is the largest MDI producer in the world, accounting for about 42 percent of the total global capacity. The second is the United States, accounting for about 16 percent of the total global capacity. In addition, in Germany, South Korea, Belgium, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Hungary, Spain and other countries, there are MDI capacity distribution. This time, the international giants declared force majeure, of which China affected the largest capacity, amounting to 1.99 million tonnes per year, accounting for 69% of the global capacity of this force majeure. The Netherlands only 470,000 tonnes and Hungary only 400,000 tonnes. This time the global international giant MDI capacity concentrated maintenance, there may be a greater impact on the Chinese MDI market.

From the recent time fluctuation from 2023 to August 2024, China’s MDI price trend showed a significant rise, in which the pure MDI price rose from 15,800 yuan / tonne to 19,200 yuan / tonne, a cumulative increase of 3,400 yuan / tonne, up 22%. And polymerisation MDI rose from RMB 15,095/tonne to RMB 17,871/tonne, with a cumulative rise of RMB 2,700/tonne, up 18%. This time from the end of July, the international giants concentrated force majeure, is expected to help China’s MDI market prices appear a new round of rise.It is expected that the probability of the future of China’s MDI price shock will be stronger