Chemical Prices Today (October 20, 2026): Daily Market Trends & Price Changes

Basic chemicals tracked 59 products after the re-expansion, of which 21 moved — only 2 higher ( Nickel +0.18% to CNY 119,500/ton, Urea +0.29% to CNY 1,740/ton) against 19 lower — while 38 lines froze. The decline list, in depth order: Dichloromethane -8.15%, Acetone -4.96%, Sulfur -4.33%, Formaldehyde -2.56%, Acetic acid -2.17%, Hydrochloric acid -2.08%, Lithium carbonate -1.94%, Cobalt -1.73%, Ethylene glycol -1.14%, down through Phenol -1.07%, Methanol -1.01%, Xylene -0.95%, Ammonium sulfate -0.81%, PET -0.71%, Potassium chloride -0.49%, ethyl acetate -0.38%, Benzene -0.32%, Propylene -0.31% and Phosphoric Acid -0.30%.

The cumene pair re-uniformed, and that is the demand tell. Acetone fell 4.96% to CNY 8,150/ton — erasing October 19’s 2.53% rebound within one session and printing below the October 16 level of CNY 8,363/ton, now 1.70% under week-start — while Phenol eased a further 1.07% to CNY 9,250/ton. The previous edition read the divergence (one leg bouncing against a falling feedstock) as relative-value rotation; today both halves of the oxidation unit are marked down together again, which was the signature of the uniform demand de-rating it flagged before that. The acetic chain kept normalizing: Acetic acid -2.17% to CNY 4,510/ton for a second consecutive markdown (weekly -5.61%, monthly +16.83% still), ethyl acetate -0.38% to CNY 7,073/ton (weekly -1.47%), while Acetic anhydride froze at CNY 7,240/ton on a +9.90% month — now the obvious catch-down candidate in that pocket. The frozen-highs logic from the DCM card applies directly here.

Lithium carbonate fell 1.94% to CNY 101,000/ton, ending yesterday’s bounce as a one-session affair. The October 19 edition set the test — hold above CNY 100,000 and the oversold snap-back graduates into a floor; fail and the trend resumes. The number itself held on the print (CNY 101,000, exactly the October 18 level), but the tape’s shape failed: the rise unwound in full, the weekly clock deepened to -3.38% and the monthly to -16.46%. Cobalt fell a further 1.73% to CNY 238,500/ton, 5.47% below week-start and 9.78% below month-start, with nothing arguing against it; Nickel eked +0.18% to CNY 119,500/ton (weekly +0.68%, monthly -4.61%), a quiet stabilization rather than a turn. The one genuinely constructive corner of the battery complex is downstream: dimethyl carbonate froze at CNY 6,000/ton with its monthly drain easing to -4.26%, and PTMEG — yesterday’s artefact correction — printed flat at CNY 19,000/ton, confirming the corrected level held; the spandex line’s weekly clock turned +1.27% and the monthly +9.68%.

The aromatic block drifted lower without dissent: Benzene -0.32% to CNY 10,318/ton, Xylene -0.95% to CNY 8,627/ton, Toluene frozen at CNY 8,807/ton and PX unchanged at CNY 10,500/ton (monthly +7.95%) — benzene 1.33% under week-start. The one holdout is Aniline, which paused at CNY 16,400/ton after two consecutive supply-driven gains (+2.78% week, +12.21% month) — the cost-push pocket now merely holding, exactly where the previous edition’s caps-downstream-acceptance caveat predicted. The olefin-to-bottle chain kept squeezing: Propylene -0.31% to CNY 10,501/ton (weekly -1.71%), Ethylene glycol -1.14% to CNY 5,742/ton for a second consecutive markdown, continuing its three-clock sweep (weekly -4.01%, monthly -5.08%), and PET -0.71% to CNY 8,764/ton. Propylene glycol froze at CNY 9,333/ton (weekly -2.57%, monthly -0.20%) — the level the mid-chain settled to after October’s squeeze unwound; it holds, so far.

The coal-gas chain extended its grind: Formaldehyde fell 2.56% to CNY 1,786/ton for a sixth consecutive decline (weekly -4.59%, monthly +9.88% still), Methanol un-froze and slipped 1.01% to CNY 3,927/ton (monthly +11.11% still carrying the September squeeze), while calcium carbide printed its first freeze of the run at CNY 2,530/ton. The freeze matters for the PVC card above: the supply-led rebound thesis now has cost flat rather than falling, which removes the one argument that the rise is an artefact of anchor noise. The nitrogen complex split again: Urea eked +0.29% to CNY 1,740/ton (weekly +0.17%) while melamine — a fine-chemicals line — fell 0.40% to CNY 6,175/ton for a second consecutive opposite-direction print, and Ammonium sulfate eased 0.81% to CNY 1,230/ton. The frozen list carries the segment’s weight: Chloroform (CNY 2,600/ton, +9.61% month), Ethylene Oxide (CNY 9,700/ton, +7.93%), PX, Acetic anhydride, Caustic Soda and Sodium hydroxide, Formic acid flat at CNY 2,100/ton (-8.93% month), Sodium bicarbonate at CNY 1,195/ton, White phosphorus at CNY 28,246/ton, EVA at CNY 11,633/ton (+1.87% week, +4.13% month), plus the returnees Propane (CNY 6,150/ton), Calcium phosphate, Poly(vinyl alcohol), Silicon (CNY 9,700/ton), distilled water and White cement at CNY 450/ton, Mineral oil flat at CNY 72,000/ton with its caution-flagged +35.21% weekly, Bauxite, iodine (CNY 640/kg) and the potassium salts: Potassium carbonate, Potassium nitrate (-1.95% month) and Potassium chloride, the last of these actually marked down 0.49% to CNY 3,217/ton.

The overall read for Basic Chemicals is a freeze that is no longer stable — it is a platform. Thirty-eight lines did not move, but the movers’ 2-to-19 ratio and the breaking of two flagged frozen highs (DCM, and hydrochloric acid on the chlor-alkali flank) say the repricing has started from the stale carries downward. The energy cost-push story is retired for now: crude’s retreat from USD 100 arrives while chemicals are already falling, so what remains on the board is soft offtake and margin erosion everywhere between the wellhead and the bottle. Buyers’ live discount list widened: the acetic chain, the cumene pair, ethylene glycol–PET and the sulfite complex. The stale-high watchlist is now explicit — chloroform (+9.61%), ethylene oxide (+7.93%), PX (+7.95%), acetic anhydride (+9.90%) and the month-carrying formaldehyde and methanol freezes — and the DCM print says how those gaps close: fast, and in single sessions.

Fine chemicals tracked 30 products after the specialty book’s return, and only 3 lines moved — Melamine -0.40% to CNY 6,175/ton and Sodium metabisulfite -1.03% to CNY 3,843/ton lower, while the only up-print in the segment was Retinol at +1.89% to CNY 54/kilogram, a base so small it is noise rather than signal. The other twenty-seven products were unchanged: Alkaline Phosphatase, antifreeze, Benzyl alcohol, Castor oil (returned, weekly +0.48%), Chlorine tablets, Citric acid, Creatinine, dimethyl carbonate, Dimethyl sulfoxide, Ferric chloride, glycolic acid, Guar gum, Hydroquinone, Lactic acid, Magnesium glycinate, Melatonin, Oleic acid, Petroleum, Potassium sorbate (returned, weekly -8.48%, monthly +2.03%), PTMEG, Silver iodide (returned, weekly +5.87%), sodium acetate, Sodium hypochlorite, tranexamic acid, Triclopyr, Water softener salt and Xanthan gum.

The artefact ledger cleared this session, with one new caution. PTMEG printed flat at CNY 19,000/ton, confirming that yesterday’s +11.76% was a base correction that has now settled (weekly +1.27%, monthly +9.68%); Anthracite, in the energy segment, sat unchanged at CNY 1,575/ton with the weekly clock at -1.13%, closing that chapter the same way. The returning Mineral oil line, however, arrived flat at CNY 72,000/ton but carrying a +35.21% weekly reading and a -18.33% monthly one — a combination that only makes sense against an anomalous base, and this series’ history (the October 16 edition flagged mineral oil, silver iodide and potassium sorbate as the artefact-prone group) says: do not read the 35%. Silver iodide returned flat at CNY 1,804/kilogram (+5.87% week, +11.90% month), and Potassium sorbate at CNY 15,100/ton — still the same level it corrected to on October 16, now 8.48% under week-start, quietly negative beneath a flat print.

Two chains carry the segment’s actual news. Sodium metabisulfite fell 1.03% to CNY 3,843/ton, accelerating from October 19’s 0.26% slip exactly as sulfur declined again (another 4.33%, weekly -13.81%): the pass-through conversation flagged two sessions ago is no longer prospective, and the markdowns are compounding while sulfuric acid (unchanged at CNY 1,558/ton, monthly -7.54%) keeps its lag. Melamine -0.40% to CNY 6,175/ton made it a second consecutive session moving opposite to Urea (+0.29%) inside the nitrogen complex, with the monthly carry down to +0.59%. Beside them, the quiet list: Ferric chloride froze at CNY 2,800/ton after two small markdowns; Citric acid held CNY 6,200/ton for the third straight session with no monthly drift — the hedge note from yesterday stays un-triggered; DMSO flat at CNY 12,075/ton (+4.45% month); dimethyl carbonate flat at CNY 6,000/ton; Hydroquinone unmoved at CNY 30,500/ton.

The practical message for fine-chemicals buyers: the specialty book is dormant — 27 of 30 frozen — and the repricing is concentrated in the sulfur chain. Metabisulfite has now printed two accelerating markdowns; if sulfur’s weekly clock stays at double digits, the next line down in that complex is a when, not an if, and water-treatment purchases should be priced off the feedstock, not the frozen reference. The returnee group — mineral oil, silver iodide, potassium sorbate — is a flat board with suspect clocks: treat their weekly and monthly readings as base-day ghosts until three consecutive same-level prints confirm them. Everything else is a hold.

Energy, rubber, plastic and other chemicals tracked 15 products, of which 5 moved — 2 higher against 3 lower. PVC gained 1.85% to CNY 4,950/ton and ABS added 0.20% to CNY 12,157/ton, while WTI Crude Oil slipped 1.98% to USD 99/barrel, Asphalt fell 0.75% to CNY 5,940/ton and Gasoline eased 0.30% to CNY 9,992/ton. Flat: Anthracite at CNY 1,575/ton, kerosene at CNY 8,500/ton, HDPE at CNY 10,950/ton, Carbon at CNY 12,500/ton, Carbon Black at CNY 10,807/ton, Silica at CNY 6,367/ton, and the returnees Basalt at CNY 650/ton, EAA at CNY 57,800/ton, POE at CNY 16,500/ton and Poly(vinyl acetate) at CNY 12/kilogram.

Crude’s return to USD 99 (mover card above) rewrote the energy script: after four sessions of “oil up, chemicals unmoved”, the premium is partially unwinding and the domestic lines are tracing it with their own clocks. Gasoline -0.30% to CNY 9,992/ton gave back part of yesterday’s first formula-driven gain — the ten-working-day mechanism lags, so the crude retreat of the last session is not yet fully in the pump price; the week is still +0.15%. Kerosene held CNY 8,500/ton after October 16’s 1.18% jump, weekly -0.23%, its jet-demand bid persisting but not extending. Asphalt at CNY 5,940/ton is the segment’s most honest line: a fifth consecutive decline, -3.21% on the week, priced entirely by the winding-down of northern road construction. Anthracite at CNY 1,575/ton, unchanged, closes the artefact chapter: the coal market is genuinely sideways into the winter campaign. Oil down, formula-lagged products easing, seasonal products sliding, coal flat — the energy basket has stopped being a story and started being four separate clocks.

Plastics split into a firm top and a soft bottom, with PVC’s return as the swing. Outside the mover card: ABS eked +0.20% to CNY 12,157/ton, extending its week to +1.09% and its month to +4.29% — engineering-resin margin recovery against falling styrene-chain feedstocks continues. HDPE froze at CNY 10,950/ton following its October 16 and 19 markdowns (weekly -1.23%, monthly -0.27%), and PET slid another 0.71% to CNY 8,764/ton under the falling EG feedstock — the commodity end of the plastics board matches the bottle chain’s squeeze, not PVC’s supply cuts. The returnee trio — POE (CNY 16,500/ton), EAA (CNY 57,800/ton, monthly -0.81%) and Poly(vinyl acetate) (CNY 12/kg) — all printed flat, adding coverage without adding information. The rubber block stayed inert for a fifth session: Carbon Black CNY 10,807/ton (weekly -1.16%), Silica CNY 6,367/ton (weekly -0.22%) — the tyre chain settled at its new lower level. Carbon (CNY 12,500/ton) and returning Basalt (CNY 650/ton) completed the quiet board.

Overall, the tape reads as a market of 75 frozen prices and one conclusion: the energy-cost story that framed the week is closing without ever having passed through, leaving demand weakness exposed. The board has now tested both directions of the crude headline and fallen either way — up 5 against down 24 today, after a four-session record of chemical lines refusing to follow the barrel higher. The repricing is starting where the previous edition said it would: the stale monthly carries (dichloromethane’s +27% was the first to crack), and the pass-through chains with live feedstock gravity (sulfur’s double-digit week pulling metabisulfite down with it). The two survivors of that logic are worth their space: PVC’s supply-led rebound (now with a frozen carbide anchor behind it rather than a falling one) and aniline’s two-week cost-push hold — pockets where scarcity still outranks demand. What to watch next: whether chloroform, ethylene oxide and PX close their +8–10% frozen months the way DCM just closed its +27%; whether lithium holds CNY 100,000 on an actual close rather than a level; and whether the 75 freezes stay frozen while the offtake softness keeps printing. This is no longer a market storing energy for someone else’s move — the move has started, and it is pointing down.