China Insider

China's biggest battery-solvent maker is spending ¥2.08 billion (about US$290 million) to sell battery salt ready-dissolved in its own solvent and rewrite the cost rules of the electrolyte business. 

China's chemical market is showing two clear, opposing currents today — the benzene/aromatics chain is falling, while propylene (C3) derivatives and the PU chain are climbing. Rubber-latex and carbon-materials segments are also showing sharp divergence.

The 92% surge and the 62% crash are both behind us. The second half of 2026 is a band, not a bear market and the floor sits at ¥28,000. Bearish bromine in H2'26? No; the bear market already happened, compressed into eleven weeks of Q2. From above ¥70,000/t in April to ¥26,500/t at the trough, the correction is done. AJC expects bromine to hold a ¥28,000– 32,000/t band (≈ USD 3,900–4,475/t) through H2, with a shallow seasonal dip risk in Aug–Sep consolidation, not capitulation.

The Lithium chain refuses to cool in China. Battery-grade lithium carbonate  now stands +109% y/y while lithium hydroxide +127% y/y, while LiPF6 has remained almost flat (≈USD 15500/t).

*Nineteen technical-grade products across the three crop-protection segments were repriced this week. Sixteen moved lower, three moved higher. The direction of travel is unambiguous: Chinese technical

prices are deflating into a soft post-Kharif order book, with buyers holding thin cover and formulators unwilling to build inventory ahead of confirmed demand.*

*The first half of 2026 was a war movie. The Strait of Hormuz — the narrow sea lane through which a fifth of the world's oil and a huge share of its chemicals sail — became the most-watched stretch of

water on earth. Prices of everything from crude oil to methanol spiked, tankers took the long way  around, and every chemical buyer in Asia learned some geograph.*

For the first time in its industrial history, China — the world's largest buyer of sulfur, is on the wrong side of a shortage. Imports have halved, port stocks have fallen to a decade low, and a commodity that spent ten years below ¥2,000/t has torn through ¥12,000. This is the anatomy of a super-cycle nobody planned for.

China's PVC industry has reached the end of a decade-long capacity build. 2025 closes the expansion cycle with 30 Mt of nameplate capacity, while demand contracts to 19.96 Mt — the widest supply–demand gap in the sector's history.

China’s methanol system is overwhelmingly home-grown and coal-based — the country that pioneered coal-to-methanol now runs on it. Of ~206 (10k t) of weekly output, coal contributes ~83%, with coke-oven gas (~9%) and natural gas (~7%) the remainder.