Acrylics (PMMA): Cycles

Boom, bust and Western plant closures

What this tab covers How its prices and margins move: past booms and busts with price levels, the spread or margin that the industry watches, the drivers of the cycle and the metrics to track.

MMA is a boom-bust market. Tight supply in 2017-2018 and 2021 sent prices far above cost; Chinese capacity, which doubled since 2020 to about 2.9 Mt/yr, then pushed the world into surplus with utilisation near 60%. PMMA prices follow MMA with a lag and a conversion margin that is steadier for cast sheet than for moulding resin. The floor is the cash cost of high-cost ACH plants, which are closing; the ceiling is substitution to polycarbonate or glass.

The spread to watch MMA minus acetone (0.68 x acetone) for ACH producers; PMMA minus MMA for polymerisers

With acetone around $800/t (phenol tile, indicative) the ACH feed cost is about $550/t of MMA before HCN, methanol and acid regeneration. Asian MMA in the $1,200s/t in July 2025 left little margin for non-integrated ACH plants (derived, indicative).

Booms and busts

2017-2018
Plant outages and strong demand tightened MMA worldwide; producers such as Mitsubishi Chemical reported record methacrylate earnings (indicative).
Asian MMA above $2,500/t at the 2018 peak (indicative)
2021-2022
Post-Covid demand, US winter storm outages and freight disruption tightened supply again before Chinese capacity arrived.
Asian MMA about $2,000-2,500/t (indicative)
2023-2025
China's capacity doubled and Western and Japanese producers closed plants: Mitsubishi Cassel (2023) and Hiroshima (2024), Sumitomo Singapore (2024), PTTAC (2024), Kuraray cut (2025).
European MMA EUR1,410/t on 21 Jul 2025, the lowest since April 2024; US spot 111 c/lb (about $2,450/t) on 14 May to 93 c/lb (about $2,050/t) on 21 Jul 2025; Indian buyers $1,600-1,800/t FOB China earlier, then $1,200s/t (S&P Global Platts)

What drives the cycle

Chinese MMA capacity. About 44% of world capacity and still growing; sets Asian prices and export flows to India.
Construction and auto demand. Sheet, glazing, sanitaryware and lamps follow these two sectors.
Closures of ACH plants. Each closure tightens regional supply outside China.
Acetone and HCN availability. ACH plants depend on phenol and acrylonitrile co-products.

Metrics to track

Metric	Why it matters	Where to track it
MMA DDP NWE, DDP USG and FOB China	Monomer price setter	S&P Global Platts, ICIS
China MMA operating rate and self-sufficiency	Asian balance	Mysteel (OilChem)
Plant closure announcements	Supply exit	Chemical Week, company releases