Argus – Methanol Market, Oct 2024

The October 2024 report by Argus Media provides a comprehensive analysis of the global methanol market, highlighting key trends and developments. The report notes that methanol prices in major markets have diverged, with Atlantic basin prices strengthening due to ongoing planned and unplanned outages, leading to higher contract and spot prices. In contrast, strong imports into Asia, particularly China, have driven softer spot prices, forcing domestic Chinese methanol production to curtail. This has resulted in an unusually large price differential between methanol's key producing regions. The report also discusses the impact of new methanol units adding to industry supply, though these are often offset by planned and unplanned outages, units idling, and possible winter output curtailments, especially in the Middle East as natural gas resources are diverted to other demand sectors. Additionally, the report highlights that methanol markets are now seeing their highest year-over-year demand growth since pre-COVID, particularly from China, largely due to continued expansions in the downstream sectors of methanol-to-olefins (MTO), acetic acid, and methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE).