Chemical Prices Today (November 5, 2026): Daily Market Trends & Price Changes

Daily Chemical Market Price Overview — November 5, 2026

Thursday is the day the domestic sheet caught up with the offshore barrel. 2,851 lines are tracked, 280 of which moved — 123 higher against 157 lower — with 2,571 frozen (90.2% of the feed) (tables print the movers, drifters and frozen premiums the scan surfaced, maximum one hundred lines per category, ranked by movement). Tracked WTI fell 8.33% to USD 88/bbl and Brent fell 8.65% to USD 95/bbl — almost exactly the 8.29% and 8.67% the offshore benchmarks lost on 4 November, arriving on the domestic composite one session late. The aromatics chain confirms it is a pass-through rather than a coincidence: benzene -6.80% to CNY 8,670/ton, styrene -5.81% to CNY 10,280/ton, terephthalic acid -6.43% to CNY 6,524/ton and methanol -4.72% to CNY 3,692/ton all conceded together. The second story is a ledger being settled: 74 lines snapped back exactly to their 11/03 published level, including the loudest names from Wednesday's board — Padimate -80.15% back to CNY 108,000/ton, 1,4-butanediol dimethacrylate +62.07% back to CNY 47,000/ton and mineral oil -86.81% back to CNY 9,500/ton. Of 94 double-digit daily changes only 10 survive the three-clock test; the other 84 are restorations, snapbacks or sign/clock mismatches on thin producer quotes. Strip those out and the session's genuine re-marks are triethylenediamine +61.77% to CNY 28,350/ton (weekly +43.70%, monthly +22.90%), ethylstyrene +25.22% to CNY 36,000/ton (weekly +12.61%, monthly +9.84%) and butyric acid -25.00% to CNY 7,500/ton (weekly -27.65%, monthly -10.25%) — three lines whose day, week and month all vote together.

Three forces shaped Thursday, and the first is a gap that has now flipped direction. Xinhua reported WTI December settling at USD 88.12/bbl (-8.29%) and Brent January at USD 94.62/bbl (-8.67%) on 4 November, the sharpest one-day drop in months after the US midterm elections lifted expectations of a negotiated end to the Iran conflict. On 5 November the offshore market reversed: Xinhua reported WTI December closing USD 90.52/bbl (+2.72%) and Brent January USD 98.29/bbl (+3.88%), as supply risk returned to the Strait of Hormuz. Xinhua's Tehran bureau, citing an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps statement, reported that two non-compliant tankers and a tugboat caught fire in the strait on the night of the 4th, one after striking a mine in a southern channel; IRNA and CCTV reported further tanker fires in the eastern strait on the 5th. Physical tightness is the footnote that keeps the bid under the market: US distillate inventories near 99.3m bbl are the lowest since 2003, which leaves little slack in the distillate crack. The Guidechem tracked sheet, by contrast, spent Thursday absorbing Wednesday's offshore break — so the domestic 88/95 composite now sits below the offshore 90.52/98.29 settlement, the mirror image of Wednesday's lag. Second, Europe's gas cost leg eased at the margin: Dutch TTF front-month futures retreated into the EUR 85–90/MWh area on the 5th from a four-year high above EUR 101.82 the previous week, but the IEA's report still puts EU storage near 75% of capacity against an 80% winter target, with Germany just above 60% — a thinner buffer, not a resolved one. Third, Beijing's export-licence calendar is now inside a three-day window: MOFCOM and the General Administration of Customs' Announcement No. 70 of 2025 suspended six lithium-battery and graphite-anode control measures only through 10 November 2026, and the 12 October 2026 notice brings a per-shipment licence requirement into force from 8 November. On Thursday's sheet the electrolyte book is still frozen; the compliance date arrives before the quote does.

Triethylenediamine prices ↑ 61.77%

Triethylenediamine rose 61.77% to CNY 28,350/ton from CNY 17,525/ton — the largest genuine move on Thursday's board and the only double-digit up-print whose weekly (+43.70%) and monthly (+22.90%) clocks both support the day. That ordering matters: the week is smaller than the day but the month is smaller still, which is the signature of a level that has been climbing for a month and stepped up again, rather than a one-day quote artefact. The economics of the level matter too. Triethylenediamine (DABCO) is the tertiary-amine gel catalyst for polyurethane foam, produced from ethylenediamine or ethanolamine feedstock and consumed in tiny dosages, so its composite is set by a small number of producers and re-quoted in steps when an operating rate or a feedstock contract changes. The surrounding shelf is the check on a demand story: toluene diisocyanate -4.44% to CNY 15,433/ton, the other half of the same PU formulation, went down on the day, and benzene and styrene both conceded with the crude pass-through. A catalyst re-marking up 62% while its co-reactant and its aromatics feedstock fall is a producer-specific supply or contract event, not a polyurethane demand spike. The same shape appears in the neighbouring specialty amines — cyclopentyl methyl ether +23.24% to CNY 45,600 and 3,4-(methylenedioxy)phenylacetonitrile +18.27% to CNY 205,000 are step re-quotes on thin lines, with weekly clocks far smaller than the day. The caveat is the one the whole fine shelf carries: a 62% day on a producer composite is a level to benchmark against, not a level to build a quarter on. For a buyer the action is to ask whether the increase is feedstock, operating rate or a contract re-quote, and to check the quote is executable at CNY 28,350/ton before treating it as a fill.

Rose 61.77% to CNY 28,350/ton, weekly +43.70%, monthly +22.90% — Thursday's largest confirmed re-mark with all three clocks aligned. TDI and benzene fell the same day, so read this as a producer-specific catalyst event, not a polyurethane demand signal: benchmark the quote before you build a position on it.

Butyric Acid prices ↓ 25.00%

Butyric acid fell 25.00% to CNY 7,500/ton from CNY 10,000/ton — the largest genuine decline on Thursday's board and the cleanest sourcing window in the feed. The weekly clock (-27.65%) is slightly larger than the day and the monthly (-10.25%) is smaller, which is the honest read: this line has been conceding for a month, Thursday is one more step in a sequence, and the week is the best measure of its size. All three clocks vote the same way, and the price is genuinely new rather than a restoration of a previously published level — the two conditions that separate a buyable decline from a quote artefact on this sheet. The economics of the level matter. n-Butyric acid is a short-chain carboxylic acid made by propylene oxo-synthesis or by fermentation, used in cellulose acetate butyrate, animal-feed preservatives and flavour esters; it trades on a small domestic producer set, so when the C3/oxo-alcohol complex softens the acid gives back in discrete re-quotes rather than drifting. The shelf around it reads the same way rather than contradicting it: glyoxylic acid -7.69% to CNY 6,000, acetylacetone -5.39% to CNY 16,438, 3-chloro-1-propanol -10.09% to CNY 147,000 and ammonium sulfamate -11.39% to CNY 7,000 are all same-sign, multi-clock declines on small acid, ketone and C3-intermediate lines. That is a broad small-molecule concession, not one isolated composite. For procurement this is the useful kind of decline: a month-long trend, three aligned clocks, and no verified supply incident pushing the other way. The discipline is unchanged — these lines trade in jumps, so confirm the producer quote is actually executable at CNY 7,500/ton and get the validity window before sizing the buy.

Fell 25.00% to CNY 7,500/ton, weekly -27.65%, monthly -10.25% — Thursday's largest confirmed give-back and a genuine sourcing window. Three clocks aligned with a month-long trend and a broad small-molecule shelf behind it; verify the quote is executable before you size the buy.

Ethylstyrene prices ↑ 25.22%

Ethylstyrene rose 25.22% to CNY 36,000/ton from CNY 28,750/ton — the largest genuine move on the basic-chemical shelf and, with the catalyst in card one, the clearest evidence that Thursday's bulk book was a two-sided re-quote day rather than a crude-driven sell-off. The weekly clock (+12.61%) and monthly (+9.84%) both sit underneath the daily jump, so the level has been building rather than popping. The context is what makes this print interesting: benzene -6.80% to CNY 8,670/ton (weekly -8.19%, monthly -7.92%), styrene -5.81% to CNY 10,280/ton, toluene -1.58% and xylene -1.18% all fell on the same day as the tracked crude barrel lost 8.33%. A substituted styrene monomer rising 25% while its entire aromatics feedstock complex falls is not a cost-push read; it is a specialty-grade line with its own supply situation. Ethylstyrene is a low-volume crosslinking and specialty-polymer monomer, producer-quoted rather than exchange-cleared, so a single plant's operating rate or a contract re-quote re-prices the composite in one step. The basic shelf around it is dominated by the crude pass-through: terephthalic acid -6.43% to CNY 6,524, methanol -4.72% to CNY 3,692 and sodium tetraborate pentahydrate +14.87% to CNY 8,750 (weekly +29.15%, monthly +34.25%) are the other confirmed prints, with the borate's three aligned clocks making it the shelf's second genuine bid. For a buyer, a 25% up-print against a falling feedstock complex is a supplier conversation, not a market direction: ask for the basis, the operating-rate picture and the validity window, and do not assume the styrene book has repriced with it.

Rose 25.22% to CNY 36,000/ton, weekly +12.61%, monthly +9.84% — the basic shelf's largest confirmed up-print, against a falling benzene/styrene complex. A specialty-grade producer re-quote, not a crude cost pass-through: ask for the basis before assuming the aromatics book moved.