PA6 (Nylon 6) Price Trend and Forecast

Regional Price Overview

Get the latest insights on price movement and trend analysis of PA6 (Nylon 6) in different regions across the world (Asia, Europe, North America, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa).

For the Second Quarter of 2022

Asia

Owing to the rising crude oil prices, the prices of feedstock benzene skyrocketed globally, thereby driving the prices of caprolactam (CPL) further. In the Chinese domestic market, the cost of caprolactam averaged 14800 RMB/MT during the said quarter. Since feedstock caprolactam remained firm throughout the domestic market, it supported the higher prices of PA6.

 However, towards the end of June, the prices of PA6 began to dip due to the great production and off-season muted demand from the downstream industries. PA6 prices averaged 16,500 RMB/MT in the domestic market.

Europe

The extreme instability and volatility impacted the prices of petrochemicals, thereby affecting all nylon-based products. The high costs of benzene and caprolactam caused the PA6 prices to inflate in the European market. Per ton price of benzene averaged 1427 USD FOB Hamburg in the said quarter.

Since the production of PA6 is a highly energy-intensive process, the manufacturers passed the rising costs of inputs to the downstream sectors. The strong demand from the fibre, automotive and semiconductor sectors sustained the high price trends of PA6.

North America

In line with the European market, the prices of PA6 in the US domestic arena remained strong throughout the quarter. The tightened supply, low inventories and increasing demand from the downstream sector sustained the higher prices across the US market.

For the First Quarter of 2022

PA 6 prices were around 15933.33 RMB/MT in China in March 2022. In February, BASF announced that it will increase the price of carpolactum and PA 6 by 0.10 USD/lb, effective March 1.

In 2020, Asia-Pacific had the highest share of the polyamide-6 market, accounting for 40.6%. Due to the rapidly growing population, rise in the automotive industry, favourable government policies, growing electrical and electronics industries, and growing textile production in developing economies such as China, Japan, South Korea, and India in this region, Asia-Pacific is dominating the market.

Because of the rising usage of polyamide-6 in automobiles, the automotive industry has the largest market share of all end-users in the worldwide polyamide-6 market. Growing vehicle production and sales, manufacturing sector advancements, low-cost labour availability, and raw material availability, notably in India and China, are likely to raise polyamide-6 demand in the region.

Procurement Resource provides latest prices of PA6 (Nylon 6). Each price database is tied to a user-friendly graphing tool dating back to 2014, which provides a range of functionalities: configuration of price series over user defined time period; comparison of product movements across countries; customisation of price currencies and unit; extraction of price data as excel files to be used offline.