1、 Price trend

In April, the domestic market of dimethyl ether changed too fast, and the overall market still fell. At the beginning of the month, the average price of domestic DME market was 2590.00 yuan / ton, and at the end of the month, the average price was 2496.67 yuan / ton, with a drop of 3.6% in the month, 27.21% lower than the same period last year.

2、 Influencing factors

Product: the market of dimethyl ether fell in April, and the atmosphere of market transaction was better in the early stage and lighter in the later stage. As of April 30, there is no price for the parking of DME devices in Yutai, Shandong shengdeyuan, Henan Yima Xinyuan and Shanxi orchid company. The ex factory price of DME of Henan Lankao Huitong Chemical Co., Ltd. is 2520 yuan / ton, the ex factory price of DME of Henan xinlianxin Chemical Industry Group Co., Ltd. is 2490 yuan / ton, and the ex factory price of DME of Henan Shengxin Biotechnology Co., Ltd. is 2480 yuan/ The factory price of dimethyl ether of Hebei Jichun Chemical Co., Ltd. is 2600 yuan / ton.

Market: at the beginning of the month, DME market as a whole is the main actor. The international crude oil soared, driving the cost of methanol and liquefied gas up. In addition, the downstream storage and replenishment operations after the Qingming Festival were more active in entering the market, the manufacturers shipped more smoothly, the inventory was released, and the price continued to push up. On September 9, the international crude oil fell, which depressed the market to a certain extent, and the price fell slightly. However, the liquefied gas continued to push up driven by the sharp rise of propane, and the price difference between gas and ether gradually opened, which again brought benefits to the dimethyl ether Market. The dimethyl ether took advantage of the rising trend, and Henan xinlianxin increased the price for four consecutive days. However, the rise was short of substantial positive results. Subsequently, with the sharp fall of liquefied gas, DME followed the decline, and the price fell sharply in the short term. With the completion of a new round of replenishment in the downstream, the market has been closed for a long time, and the mentality is more cautious. In addition, with the continuous bottoming of cost methanol, the market transaction atmosphere has become weak, and the decline of dimethyl ether is hard to change. On the 23rd, under the favorable rebound of international crude oil, the liquefied gas market rose slightly, while dimethyl ether only stopped falling and stabilized, and then rose slightly. But it ended down again at the end of the month.

Industry: according to the price monitoring of the business agency, there are four commodities in the list of price rise and fall of bulk commodities in April 2020, among which the top three commodities are liquefied gas (4.99%), MTBE (4.92%) and methanol (3.59%). There are 12 kinds of commodities falling on a month on month basis, with 6 kinds of commodities falling by more than 5%, accounting for 37.5% of the monitored commodities in the sector; the top three products falling are WTI crude oil (- 25.05%), asphalt (- 23.39%) and naphtha (- 18.96%). This month’s average rise and fall was – 6.46%.

3、 Future forecast

The price of domestic methanol continued to decline in late April, and the international oil price fell to a negative number in April. Market panic spread and investors’ interest was not high. The civil use of liquefied gas is also vulnerable to the impact of crude oil, but at present, the terminal market is mostly recovering, the demand for catering industry has increased, to some extent, it has been supported, and the price of dimethyl ether has dropped to a relatively low level, with limited space for decline. It is expected that the dimethyl ether Market as a whole may rise slightly.