MDI and TDI prices rise both at home and abroad; chemical giants such as BASF and Wanhua Chemical intensively raise prices in multiple regions

In terms of the domestic market, Shanghai's two chemical giants updated the listed prices to mainstream items in August.

Among them, Shanghai BASF set the August TDI listed price at 19,000 yuan/ton, an increase of 1,000 yuan/ton from the previous month;

Shanghai Huntsman reported the August聚合 MDI listed price at 19,500 yuan/ton, a month-on-month increase of 1,500 yuan/ton. Domestic polyurethane basic raw material prices saw a significant upward direction.

Overseas price adjustments cover Southeast Asia, South Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, with implementation times staggered.

Wanhua Chemical announced that starting from July 29, it would raise MDI and TDI selling prices in the Southeast Asian region by a unified 200 USD/ton, equivalent to approximately 1,352 yuan/ton.

Huntsman implemented multiple rounds of price increases by region: Starting from July 27, it raised MDI and polyurethane system house prices in India and the Indian subcontinent by 300 USD/ton, equivalent to approximately 2,020 yuan/ton; meanwhile, it determined to raise prices to all MDI items in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East starting from August 1, 2026, by 250 EUR/ton, equivalent to approximately 1,930 yuan. prolonged cooperative customers might execute the price adjustment timing according to contract agreements.

Regarding this broad round of price increases, both Huntsman and Wanhua Chemical explicitly stated the core reasons to the adjustments externally: continued tension in the Middle East geopolitics has raised procurement costs to upstream chemical raw materials, and costs across the entire chain of cross-border sea freight, land transport, and regional logistics have increased significantly. companies are offsetting cost pressures by raising product prices.

MDI stands to diphenylmethane diisocyanate, including pure MDI, polymeric MDI, and various modified items. It is the most core raw material in the polyurethane sector, broadly applied in fields such as building insulation, home appliances, automobiles, coatings, and adhesives. The sector levels is extremely high, presenting an oligopolistic competitive landscape.

Current global MDI production capacity is concentrated in leading chemical companies. general capacity data shows: Wanhua Chemical ranks first globally with 3.8 million tons/year, followed by BASF with 2.07 million tons/year, Covestro with 1.77 million tons/year, Huntsman with 1.37 million tons/year, and Dow with 1.11 million tons/year. Mitsui Chemicals has a current capacity of 610,000 tons/year, which can reach 710,000 tons/year after expansion completion; Tosoh Corporation of Japan and Iran's Karoon have capacities of 470,000 tons/year and 40,000 tons/year respectively.

sector insiders stated that the global supply of MDI and TDI is highly concentrated, and the pricing of leading companies has an extremely strong impact on the market. This round of simultaneous domestic and overseas price increases is driven by geopolitical costs, which will immediate lift procurement costs across the entire sector chain and increase cost pressure to downstream polyurethane product companies. Subsequent price trends will still depend on changes in the Middle East situation, the progress of global logistics recovery, and the absorption capacity of downstream terminal demand.