Only to sustain resilient for a short period

The status quo of recent polyester market can be described as: expected to weaken soon but has resilience in reality.

Demand cannot be simply described as bad now as there is resilience. It is not necessary to revise down the polymerization rate to below 80%. After all, the polyester polymerization rate has sustained low for a long period. The polyester polymerization rate seemed to be not low if looking at the absolute run rate alone, while the polyester production decreased by 2.3% on the year in Jan-Sep, 2022, which has been extremely rare.

So back to the previous topic: inventory pressure is so great, why resume production?

The inventory burden is a problem polyester companies encountered but it may be not the unique problem. High inventory has been a normality of the market amid weak demand in 2022. It may be hard to back to low inventory as it needs the cooperation of supply and demand factor. In addition, the inventory pressure is different in various factories.

Players of many links face big pressure this year. MEG plants also encounter great pressure under losses. For companies who run normally, it can suspend production periodically but it can't stop for long. When the market prosperity is bad, companies would pay more attention to achieve better performance rather than just simply suspend production.