The uptrend in the China’s nylon market has ended as most plants chose to absorb the higher cost in order to keep their customers. In fact, sales of cloth factories had improved recently. For example, some large jet-spinning plants have a good sales/production ratio of around 200 per cent to 300 per cent last week. However, many fabric plants had large stocks in hand and they were still suffering deficits, since nylon filament prices were falling through the first nine months of 2019.

Many fabric mills were also selling at profit-losing rates in order to transform the stocks into cash. Fabric mills had no intention of procuring more than they needed to. Toward the end of the third quarter, and the usually peak sales month of September, the market remained mild, and plants’ capital flow was generally tight. On top of that, there were no clear signs of an improvement in trade relations between China and the US, since textile and apparel products were still under the additional import tariff list.

Based on the normally weak demand in October, nylon filament yarn plants are more inclined to keep their production going according to sales, and control their inventory to restrict risks when feedstock cost is high.