On the last trading day of August, the textile commodity market sent a clear signal: the cost side is being repriced. Monitoring data showed only three products in the textile sector rose on that day, but PTA led with a daily gain of 1.45%, and its year-on-year increase reached 28.87%. Polyester staple fiber and cotton followed with annual gains of 19.58% and 20.17%, respectively. The increases concentrated in upstream raw materials, while downstream yarns and spandex remained flat, a divergence that warrants attention from procurement and production teams.
Market Context
This price movement is not isolated. Year-on-year data shows acrylonitrile topped with a 44.12% surge, while polyester filament (POY/FDY/DTY) rose between 21% and 24%, and nylon series gained 14% to 21%. This indicates a systematic upward shift in chemical fiber raw material prices since the same period last year, not just short-term volatility. Raw silk was the only declining product, falling 0.21% daily and 9.35% annually, highlighting the divergence between the silkworm industry and chemical fiber chains.
Notably, all advancing products gained over 0.85% daily, while only raw silk fell modestly, resulting in an average daily change of 0.18%. This pattern of broad but moderate increases typically occurs in cost-push scenarios: stronger crude oil and PX prices raise PTA production costs, which then transmit to polyester staple fiber. However, downstream cotton yarn and polyester yarn prices remained unchanged, suggesting final demand has not kept pace with raw material gains, and profits are shifting upstream.
Industry Impact
For weaving enterprises, raw materials usually account for 60% to 70% of costs. Sustained increases in PTA and polyester staple fiber mean rigid upward pressure on fabric production costs. Yet cotton yarn 32S rose only 5.63% year-on-year, far below cotton's 20.17%, indicating limited pass-through ability in the spinning segment. If raw material prices continue to climb without corresponding order price increases, midstream yarn producers' margins will be squeezed, and some small factories may face the dilemma of losing money on every order.
From a regional cluster perspective, areas like Shengze and Changxing, known for polyester filament, and the chemical fiber weaving hubs in Xiaoshan and Shaoxing, will feel the cost impact most directly. These enterprises typically quote based on "raw material cost plus processing fee," so raw material increases quickly transmit to grey fabric quotes, but customer acceptance lags. In contrast, Nantong home textiles and Keqiao fabric markets, with higher value-added products, have stronger bargaining power but still face weak consumer demand.
The foreign trade chain deserves extra attention. Fluctuating exchange rates combined with rising raw material costs put upward pressure on dollar-denominated export quotes. However, Southeast Asian competitors like Vietnam and Bangladesh have low raw material self-sufficiency and are equally affected by international oil prices, so the price gap may not widen. The key lies in delivery reliability and quality consistency—suppliers who can lock in long-term supply agreements will gain more orders during price volatility.