Part I: 2021 HDI Market Review and Forecast

Market Review: In 2021, the shortage of HDI that began in the second half of 2020 was not eased, but intensified. On January 11, Germany's Covestro declared force majeure in the supply of HDI due to a fire in the supplier's related equipment. On February 16, INVISTA's two adiponitrile(AND) and two hexanediamine(HAD) plants in Texas, USA, and Ascend's ADN and HDA plants in Alabama, on the periphery of Texas, were both seriously affected by extremely cold weather. And the two HDA giants declared force majeure at the same time. These plants contributed 65% and 50% of the global production of ADN and HDA respectively. Under these major events, the global supply situation of HDA became very severe, and the road to recovery would be long. As HDA is the most important raw material for the production of HDI products, its supply which was hit hard caused huge pressure on suppliers both in terms of cost and supply. After Chinese Spring Festival, some downstream coating manufacturers gradually resumed production, and demand further picked up. However, due to the shortage of raw materials, suppliers were cautious in offers, and thus transactions plummeted. There were limited goods held by middlemen, who had obvious intentions to sell at low prices. Offers for bulks were around CNY 60,000-70,000/ton, and the market price had a strong upward trend. In the beginning of April, the price of HDI trimer in the secondary market exceeded CNY 100,000/ton. Under the impact of rapid increase in the price of HDI curing agent, the downstream demand, which gradually recovered, turned sluggish, which seemingly restrained the price increase. However, on April 21, BASF announced that it received a force majeure notice from the supplier, and the supply of HDI products further tightened. Due to the force majeure, the high price of HDI continued. The market price maintained around CNY 100,000~110,000/ton for nearly a month, and goods in the secondary market were in short supply. On May 12, Covestro announced that the force majeure was lifted, and the long-standing supply shortage was finally eased. At the same time, the HDI market price gradually fell as the downstream demand was suppressed. By the beginning of July, the market price of HDI trimer fell to around CNY 80,000/ton. In July, Butachimie, a supplier of Germany's BASF, announced that the force majeure originally scheduled to be lifted at the end of June would continue until the end of September; Japan's Asahi Kasei planned HDI device maintenance; and Wanhua, which has the largest HDI production capacity in China, also started an overhaul of HDI equipment, and therefore the market price of HDI rose again. In the beginning of August, the market returned to a high of CNY 85,000/ton, and was consolidated until October. 

Highlights of the report:

a) The information covered is comprehensive, including the global capacity statistics of upstream raw materials ADN and HDA. 

 b) In-depth research on downstream consumption, including the demand, consumption and development trend of HDI in various consumer industries.

 c) The price strategy of HDI curing agent is refined to large, medium and small customers. 

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