0.07% — that was the average weekly price change across textile commodities in Week 39 of 2026 (September 28 to October 2). A negligible figure on the surface. But break it down: of 17 monitored items, 5 rose, 2 fell, and 10 stayed flat. Behind this mixed picture, year-on-year data draws sharply divergent curves: PTA surged nearly 60%, polyester staple fiber climbed over 35%, yet raw silk remained down 4.65%. Beneath the calm surface, divergence has long been underway.
Price Signals: Who Leads, Who Stalls
According to China Customs and industry public data, polyester staple fiber opened the week at 8,635.08 yuan/ton and closed at 8,690.58 yuan/ton, posting a 0.64% gain — the largest in the textile sector. PTA rose from 7,293.50 to 7,327.25 yuan/ton, up 0.46%. Raw silk and cotton yarn 32S each edged up 0.20%, while cotton yarn 21S gained 0.14%. On the downside, acrylonitrile fell 0.46% to 10,783.33 yuan/ton, and lint cotton slipped 0.07% to 17,408.33 yuan/ton.
Notably, 10 items held completely flat during the week, including the three major polyester filament categories — POY, DTY, and FDY — as well as nylon DTY, FDY, and POY, viscose staple fiber, spandex, rayon yarn, and polyester yarn. This broad stagnation suggests that supply and demand for most chemical fiber products are in a weak equilibrium — mills lack the confidence to raise prices but face no pressure to cut them either.
The year-on-year dimension reveals a more accurate industrial picture. PTA is up 59.46% year-on-year, polyester staple fiber up 35.44%, nylon POY up 38.88%, polyester FDY up 37.36%, and polyester POY up 36.19%. These figures point to one fact: over the past year, raw material cost increases upstream in the chemical fiber chain have far exceeded market expectations. Downstream yarn segments show markedly narrower gains — cotton yarn 32S is up only 5.52% year-on-year, rayon yarn up 6.97%, and polyester yarn up 13.29%. Cost transmission is not flowing smoothly, and spinning mills in the midstream are seeing their margins continuously squeezed.
Industrial Impact: Cost Transmission and Margin Compression in Parallel
Vertically, PTA serves as the core raw material for polyester staple fiber, and its price trend directly sets the cost floor for staple fiber. The synchronized modest gains in PTA and polyester staple fiber this week indicate mild cost-side support, but the gap between 0.46% and 0.64% suggests that staple fiber producers are attempting to restore processing margins rather than simply tracking raw material fluctuations.
For downstream weaving and garment enterprises, this means raw material procurement costs will not see dramatic short-term swings, but the year-on-year data reminds them: compared with a year ago, procurement budgets for chemical fiber raw materials need systematic upward adjustment. Take polyester FDY as an example — a 37.36% year-on-year increase means that with the same procurement budget, one can now buy nearly 30% less raw material than a year ago.
The raw silk market presents a different picture. Raw silk edged up 0.20% to 445,500 yuan/ton for the week, but remains down 4.65% year-on-year, making it one of the few textile items with negative annual growth. The weakness of the silk supply chain contrasts sharply with the strength of chemical fibers, reflecting that consumer demand for high-end natural fibers has yet to recover.
In cotton textiles, lint cotton slipped 0.07% to 17,408.33 yuan/ton, while cotton yarn 32S and 21S gained 0.20% and 0.14% respectively. Narrow fluctuations in cotton prices and slight gains in yarn prices indicate that cotton spinning enterprises are struggling to pass cost pressures downstream. But the gap between lint cotton's 16.92% year-on-year gain and cotton yarn's mere 5.52% reveals the extent of margin compression in the cotton spinning segment.