China Insider

The ask has become the list price. From 2 September, two Chinese producers officially carry H-Acid at RMB 150,000/MT; up 275% in eight months and reactive dyes are following, with downstream quotes at RMB 40/kg, up 82% this year. This edition tracks the confirmation, the three pillars holding the price up, and the first serious question being asked inside China: is H-Acid really worth 150,000

Days after breaking RMB 100,000, Chinese H-Acid producers are quoting RMB 150,000/MT: up 275% in eight months and past the record set after the 2019 Xiangshui accident. But a quote is an ask, not a deal. This edition separates the two, tracks the first dye-price response, and ranks who can actually convert the spike into profit.

One week after our special edition, Chinese H-Acid has punched through RMB 100,000/MT; a historic high, up 150% year-to-date and squarely inside the upside scenario AJC laid out on 24 August. This follow-up covers what drove the breakout, how deep the supply hole now runs, and who is built to survive it.

*2025 was the year China's acid market stopped behaving like a by-product and started trading like a commodity in its own right. Capacity reached 154.6 million tonnes (+9.2%), output 127.8 million tonnes

(+5.3%): 39.1% of world production yet the average domestic acid price more than doubled to RMB 615/t (+108.5%), swinging between RMB 355 and RMB 980 through the year. Exports surged 73.3% to 4.65 million tonnes while acid imports fell 22.1% to just 126 kt. Behind it all sits sulphur: domestic output up 5.9%, imports down 3.5%, prices up 128.2%, and the domestic sulphur average at RMB 2,556.5/t up 128.3%.*

China's first-half energy scorecard confirms the thesis AJC laid out in The Dragon Profits While the World Burns: coal is not going anywhere. It anchors the system as the safety net, while renewables sprint ahead as the growth engine and the chemical industry sits squarely at the intersection of both tracks.

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).