What are the impacts on methanol market

1. What are the impacts on methanol market?

China methanol market has been fluctuating heavily since Mar, driven up by the spikes in crude oil but then pulling back with crude oil correcting down. Then, with the spread of pandemic in China, methanol market was weighed lower.

It can be easily seen that methanol market is deeply affected by crude oil and fluctuated sharply recently. Firstly, the market was driven by crude oil. With the changing situation of Russia-Ukraine conflict and negotiation, crude oil has turned more volatile, playing a decisive role to petrochemical market. Secondly, downstream demand was hit by the spread of pandemic. Downstream plant operations were restricted with operating rates of formaldehyde and DME plants dropping. As the confirmed cases of covid-19 infections kept increasing, downstream plant production could still be under strains