Metallurgy / Chemicals / Rubber & Plastics

According to customs data, in December 2022, China imported 967400 tons of methanol, an increase of 43.32% year on year, with an average import price of 314 US dollars per ton and an export of 0.02 million tons. In 2022, the total import volume will be 12.1929 million tons, an increase of 8.85% over the total import volume in 2021.

According to customs data, in terms of the import volume and average import price of each month, there are two months in which the month-on-month increase is more than 40%, which are 41.33% month-on-month increase in January and 43.42% month-on-month increase in March. However, the import volume of these two months has not increased significantly compared with that of last year, which is only 11.75% and -0.09% respectively. The main factor behind this is that the impact of gas restriction on the production in Iran in 22 years is relatively large, and the production in February fell seriously, with a month-on-month decrease of 29.3%, The average import price from January to May was at the highest level in the year. According to customs data, April and May were the highest average import prices in the year, with 397 dollars/ton and 375 dollars/ton respectively.

From the perspective of year-on-year increase, customs data showed that in July and December of 22 years, both exceeded 40%. In July, the year-on-year increase was 41.33%. The newly released data in December increased by 43.32% compared with the previous year. After the import volume reached the peak in July, the average import price reached the bottom of the year in August and September, respectively, at $302/ton and $303/ton. After that, the average import price rose slowly in the fourth quarter.

It is not difficult to see from the three-year arrival volume histogram of Huarui Information Statistics that February 22 was the month in which the lowest arrival volume of the year occurred, and also the lowest column in three years, while the highest arrival volume of the year occurred in July, which coincides with 2020, but decreased compared with the highest arrival volume of the previous year. In addition, the data in December showed a significant recovery from last year, which is the same as the customs import volume data.

Looking at the long time axis, customs data showed that the import volume of methanol in China showed a wave growth trend from 7.4297 million tons in the whole year of 2018 to 12.1929 million tons in the whole year of 22. Among them, 2020 is the highest import point in the past five years. In that year, the import volume reached as much as 13 million tons. In 2021, the import volume declined slightly, but the range was not large. In 2022, it increased again. This is because as the "reservoir" of methanol in the world, China's supply and demand in the methanol industry increased year by year. There are still many new capacity expected to be put into production in 2023.