Chemical Prices Today (October 22, 2026): Daily Market Trends & Price Changes

Daily Chemical Market Price Overview — October 22, 2026

The two biggest prints of the session were data again, not demand. 27 of 102 tracked products moved — 10 higher against 17 lower, with 75 lines frozen — but the head of the raw ranking belongs to neither: potassium sorbate +32.45% to CNY 20,000/ton is a base-reversion — its weekly clock reads only -1.06%, meaning the line traded near 20,200 a week ago and the CNY 15,100 quote frozen across October 20–21 was the anomaly, on the very line this column flagged as an artefact back in the October 16 edition; and mineral oil +25.56% to CNY 51,167/ton is its third unstable print in three sessions (72,000 → 40,750 → 51,167) — at least the stale +35.21% weekly clock flagged for four days finally left the sheet, re-based to +10.76%. Stripped of both resets, the honest board reads: dichloromethane -5.79% to CNY 2,845/ton the deepest genuine decline, formaldehyde -3.25% its second leg, methanol +1.17% the largest genuine gain, nickel +0.99% a fourth consecutive advance on a production-cut report the named companies denied, and lithium carbonate -1.01% to CNY 98,000/ton, a decelerating fourth session further below the round floor. The basket turned over again: 101 to 102 lines, with palladium, silicon and sodium alginate entering and metronidazole — and PVC, mid-rally after three straight gains — leaving coverage.

Three forces shaped the day. First, the solvent war went vertical: DCM's second markdown (-5.79% after Monday's -8.15% and a one-session pause) came with four major Shandong producers cutting their posted prices the same afternoon to a 2,750–2,850 band, while the monthly clock still carries +26.74% — the give-back is roughly complete by week and nowhere near complete by month. Second, battery metals traded narratives against arithmetic: nickel rose again on cut-talks that GEM, Lygend, CNGR and Shengtun publicly denied within hours, on a cycle in which Indonesia's 2026 ore quota was confirmed revised upward to ~290 million tonnes (October 16, against the initial 250–260-million plan); lithium fell for a fourth session as the exchange issued an evening risk warning and November battery schedules turned negative, even as physical inventories keep draining. Third, the tracked barrel and the real one separated: the sheet printed a fourth consecutive WTI decline (-1.02% to USD 97) on a day the front-month futures gained more than USD 2 to USD 99.4 on Houthi strikes inside Saudi Arabia and IRGC action against five vessels in the Gulf — the geopolitical premium is now outrunning this board's capture.

Nickel prices ↑ 0.99%

Nickel rose 0.99% to CNY 123,833/ton from CNY 122,617/ton — a fourth consecutive gain and the largest cumulative weekly advance on the board (+2.3%), even though the report behind it was disowned by its own subjects. The sequence: on October 21 Bloomberg relayed that Tsingshan, GEM, Lygend and Huayou would meet this week to finalize coordinated HPAL cuts, and a concrete plan circulated (nickel pig iron -20%, high-matte and MHP -50%, executing from Friday through year-end). On October 22 Cailian Press phoned the named companies: GEM, Lygend, CNGR and Shengtun all denied any such meeting had taken place or was scheduled; Huayou's line was bluntest — “the meeting is not true… at this price no enterprise is profitable; cutting is the market's choice, and our own project's cut was announced back in April.” The tape rose anyway, which tells you what actually moves this metal: the mechanics were exit, not entry — Monday’s +3.05% Shanghai close came with open interest down 46,981 lots, and Tuesday’s 2611 print settled +1.60% at CNY 121,420 after an intraday 123,430 peak — shorts paying to leave a rally built from the October 16 year-to-date low of 114,440, not new longs entering. The arithmetic underneath remains real even if the story failed: every Chinese refining route is cash-negative (integrated MHP electro-deposited cost near CNY 148,000 against a 121,000 quote), LME stocks stand at 280,674 tonnes, and — the correction this edition owes its own readers — the 2026 RKAB mining quota was confirmed on October 16 at ~290 million tonnes, revised upward from the initial 250–260-million plan, so the ore gate is opening even as the smelter gate talks about closing. Weekly +2.3%, monthly still -4.46%. Price the cost floor, not the rumour.

Price rose 0.99% today — a fourth straight gain built on a cut report the named companies publicly denied, with the 2026 Indonesian ore quota confirmed revised up to ~290 Mt last week. The rally is short-covering (open interest -46,981 lots), not demand; the support is arithmetic (every route loses cash at spot), not narrative. The sell-side lesson of the session: buy the cost curve, sell the press release.

Dichloromethane prices ↓ -5.79%

Dichloromethane fell 5.79% to CNY 2,845/ton from CNY 3,020/ton — the deepest genuine markdown on the board, and the second leg of a break that has now taken the line -13.5% from its October 19 level of 3,288 in four sessions. The producer behaviour is the story: on October 22 all four tracked Shandong majors cut posted prices the same afternoon — Luxi Chemical to 2,850, Shandong Jinling to 2,800 at both its Dawang and Dongying plants, Dongyue and Dongying Huatai both to 2,750 (acceptance +20) — a band so wide and simultaneous that it reads as utilization management, not discount negotiation. This confirms the machine-flagged “clearly down” trend signal this column reported turning negative on the 5/10/20-day tests yesterday. The monthly clock still carries +26.74% — the unwind has taken roughly half a week's premium and a quarter of the month's; the arithmetic until the give-back is complete has buyers standing aside, holding only rigid-demand spot cover. Two offsets. The feedstock is not falling with them: methanol gained 1.17% to CNY 3,993/ton (the largest genuine up-print on the platform, and the top chemical gainer on the domestic scoreboard at +1.18%), so chlor-methane margins are compressing and the price war is being run off utilization, not cost. And the floor argument has content: low producer inventories plus November maintenance rounds, with the physical band already trading at 2,750–2,850 against the tracked 2,845 print. The same-family quote that has not yet blinked: chloroform, frozen a fifth session at CNY 2,600/ton carrying a +10.05% monthly premium — next in line under the pattern DCM just wrote: pause, second leg, double-digit give-back.

Price dropped 5.79% today — the deepest genuine fall of the session, and the second leg after Monday's -8.15%, with all four tracked Shandong producers cutting posted prices to 2,750–2,850 on the same afternoon. The monthly clock still carries +26.74%: the give-back is incomplete, and the feedstock (methanol +1.17%) is rising, not falling. Chloroform, frozen at a +10.05% month, is the same-family quote with the least excuse left.

Lithium carbonate prices ↓ -1.01%

Lithium carbonate fell 1.01% to CNY 98,000/ton from CNY 99,000/ton — a fourth consecutive decline (103,000 → 101,000 → 99,000 → 98,000, -4.9% in four sessions), now decelerating (-1.94, -1.98, -1.01) but not stopping, with the weekly clock at -5.04% and the monthly at -17.46%. The derivatives re-found their knife edge: the Guangzhou 2701 contract closed 94,180, down 3.58%, after an intraday 94,160 — and that was precisely why the exchange published an evening risk-warning letter on the board's volatility, the first formal regulatory acknowledgment of a market this column has been calling position-driven. The November dossier hardened on both sides of the split. The expectation stack: November cell schedules printed their first negative month of the year (323 GWh, -5.0% m/m per industry think-tank surveys), China NEV passenger retails ran -13% year-on-year over October 1–18, CATL's Q3 miss dragged the equity complex that seeds the futures hedge, the Jianxiawo environmental review moved into its approval-publication stage (one formal step closer to restart, though the beneficiation plant and tailings still re-permit), and output keeps growing (+112 t to 25,500 t/week, October forecast +1%). The physical stack is the rebuttal that keeps not being believed: social stocks fell a further 5,145 t to 134,372 t, registered warrants drained to 20,952 lots (-743 in one session, roughly -22% week-on-week), and holders near the cost line are refusing the futures print — keeping the cash-versus-94,180 gap at ~3,800. The practical position inverts for the fourth straight edition: it is not the round number that decides this line, it is which way the futures-spot gap closes — and for the first time the exchange itself has told you it is watching.

Price dropped 1.01% today — a fourth consecutive markdown, slower but deeper below the handle at CNY 98,000, against a futures close of 94,180 (-3.58%) that finally drew an exchange risk-warning letter. November schedules turned negative (-5.0% m/m) while warrants keep draining (-743, -22% on the week). Expectation is setting the price; the physical world has not finished arguing. Trade the gap, not the handle.

The above pricing data is compiled from multiple market channels including domestic ex-works quotations, distributor transaction references, port prices, and mainstream spot market assessments. Data was updated on October 22, 2026, based on the latest available trading activity and real-time market feedback collected by GuideTrends analysts and industry participants.

All prices are for reference purposes only and may vary depending on region, transaction volume, specification, and contract terms.

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