In March, the market for chloroform fell sharply. According to data from Business News Agency, as of March 31, the price of trichloromethane bulk water in Shandong Province was 2675 yuan/ton, a slight decrease of 16.41% from 3200 yuan/ton at the beginning of the month, and the monthly high was 3450 yuan/ton. The price of raw material methanol has dropped significantly, while the cost of chloroform has declined significantly; At the beginning of the month, the supply side pressure in the trichloromethane market was relatively low, coupled with the rise in the downstream refrigerant peak season R22 price, which timely replenished the inventory of trichloromethane, driving the price of trichloromethane up slightly; In the second half of the month, with the early shutdown, the restart of the load reduction device, or the lifting of the load to normal operation, the pressure on the supply side of trichloromethane increased. In addition, the centralized replenishment of the downstream warehouse ended, resulting in light transaction in the later period, and a significant decline in the price of trichloromethane.

In March, the start of trichloromethane production was relatively low at the beginning of the month and increased in the later period, resulting in a gradual increase in supply side pressure.

In March, the price of raw material methanol fell sharply, while the cost of chloroform fell sharply. According to the business news agency, as of March 31, the spot price of methanol was 2561 yuan/ton, down 6.37% from 2735 yuan/ton at the beginning of the month.

On the one hand, the total production quota for R22 was reduced by 19% to 181800 tons in 2023. On the other hand, since the arrival of the traditional peak season in March, the price of R22 has been strong, and there is a replenishment demand for chloroform. However, due to the impact of quota reduction, the overall demand continues to decrease compared to previous years. In mid to late March, downstream support for chloroform gradually weakened.

According to methane chloride data analysts from Business News, although the supply side of chloroform is currently under great pressure, coupled with lower costs, it is expected that the market for chloroform will consolidate in a weak manner in the short term.