Surging Values of Dibutyl Phthalate Amid Stagnant Demand in China

Last month the price of Dibutyl Phthalate was seen declining, but the value surged marginally in China. However, if the demand for DBP material is stagnant in the market, what is the reason behind this surge?

Lockdown amid covid and reduced income and earnings has impacted the purchasing power of people globally. Due to this, the demand for goods other than the necessities is seen declining in the marketplaces, and a significant impact on the sales of luxuries like automobiles, houses, and cosmetics can be seen worldwide. GDP rates in lockdown countries like Australia, China, and New Zealand is indirectly affected due to the declined demand sentiments by consumers and less supply of materials to markets. Construction and automobile sectors are affected severely, and less demand for plasticizers phthalates materials like Polyvinyl Chloride, Dioctyl Phthalate, Dibutyl Phthalate, and Dioctyl Terephthalate.

In China, the clogging of containers is causing port congestion and affecting the transportation of materials, along with high freight costs caused by increasing fuel prices. It is affecting the supply of raw materials to the manufacturing industries, and continuous lockdowns are causing labour shortages in the country. The Production rates are affected due to the above reason. So, the overall supply of DBP phthalate is less in the market. As per ChemAnalyst data, feed n-Butanol price is upsurging, which was declining previously, and now it is impacting the production cost of DBP materials.

ChemAnalyst experts say that the prices of DBP are likely to increase slowly along with its production cost and supply constraints of raw materials to the manufacturing unit due to the disturbed port activities, which are likely to run smoothly after some time. The demand for DBP phthalate material will be firm for some time as China's situation is still worse.”