As per a report by the CCF Group, of all various downstream fields of nylon, consumption of nylon films grew significantly in the first half of 2020. This was mainly driven by surging demand for convenient and fast food at the early stage of the pandemic around the world, which drove up demand for nylon film. Particularly in March and April, when the pandemic was spreading fast, nylon film exports surged. The output of nylon film grew to 8 per cent in H1 2020.

However, output of nylon 6 textile filament reduced by 5 per cent year-on-year, and the proportion of nylon distribution to film dipped 2 percentage from 55 per cent in 2019 to 53 per cent in H1 2020. Nylon 6 textile filament demand shrank due to falling China domestic textiles trading and exports in the first half of 2020. In China domestic market, shrunk demand for textiles could be told in evidently declined China Textile City turnover in the first 7 months in 2020.

The actual demand for NFY driven by mask export is estimated at around 40-50kt, however, the demand decrease due to shrinking apparel exports is estimated at around 180-230kt. The temporary increase in textiles export could not make up the shortage brought by lower apparels trading.

In other areas, the output of industrial filament, engineering plastic, and microfiber was also restricted during February-March and in April-May both supply and demand recovered to a normal pace. Demand for staple fiber had shrunk similarly like nylon 6 textile filament, given the shrinking end user’s demand on the year.

Besides the impact on demand in various areas, supply of nylon 6 in the first half of the year was the same as that same period last year, as some imports were replaced by China domestic production and some cargoes were accumulated in the form of inventory (mainly high-speed spinning.