Wanhua Chemical: The 1.1 million tons/year MDI unit in Yantai will undergo shutdown for maintenance starting from August 10.

On August 5, Wanhua Chemical Group Co., Ltd. released the "Announcement on Shutdown and Maintenance of MDI Units at Yantai Industrial Park". The announcement indicates that to ensure the safe and effective operation of production facilities and in accordance with the annual maintenance plan, the company's 1.1 million tons/year MDI unit and related supporting facilities at the Yantai Industrial Park will commence shutdown and maintenance on August 10, 2026, with an expected maintenance cycle of approximately 45 days.

The Board of Directors and all directors of the company guarantee that there are no false records, misleading statements, or material omissions in this announcement, and they bear individual and joint liability for the authenticity, accuracy, and completeness of its contents. Wanhua Chemical emphasized that this shutdown is a routine maintenance within the annual plan and will not have a significant impact on the company's overall production and operation.

Multiple bases enter maintenance cycle centrally in 2026, with domestic and overseas facilities undergoing maintenance in rotation

In 2026, multiple production bases of Wanhua Chemical will carry out facility maintenance work as planned.

On the domestic front, on June 23, the 800,000 tons/year MDI unit at the Fujian Industrial Park commenced shutdown and maintenance with a cycle of 20 days, and maintenance was completed successfully with resumption of production on August 1; in the second quarter, the PDH (propane dehydrogenation) units at the Penglai and Yantai Industrial Parks also completed planned shutdown maintenance successively.

Overseas bases also welcomed annual operations and maintenance. In mid-July, the integrated MDI and TDI units at the BorsodChem (BCH) chemical base in Hungary commenced maintenance. The base possesses 400,000 tons/year of MDI capacity, and the maintenance duration is about 35 days, resulting in a phased reduction in MDI supply in the European region. Thus far this year, Wanhua's domestic and overseas core polyurethane capacity units have successively entered the maintenance window.

Capacity Pattern: Single unit maintenance brings supply contraction, multi-base allocation hedges fluctuations

The 1.1 million tons/year MDI unit at the Yantai Industrial Park is Wanhua Chemical's core domestic MDI capacity unit. As a core raw material for polyurethane, MDI covers vast downstream markets such as building insulation, home appliances, automotive, and synthetic leather. The shutdown of this unit will phase-wise compress the circulating supply of domestic MDI commodities.

Market analysis points out that superimposed with the successive maintenance of multiple domestic and overseas units within the year, there is an expectation of phased contraction on the MDI supply side, which provides some support for spot prices. However, Wanhua possesses a multi-base integrated layout in Yantai, Ningbo, Fujian, and Hungary. It can rely on cross-base capacity scheduling, inventory adjustment, and import/export allocation to hedge the supply gap caused by single-plant maintenance and smooth out short-term industry fluctuations.

Subsequent progress shall be subject to announcements

This maintenance is a routine safe production and maintenance operation for chemical enterprises. Wanhua Chemical stated that it will strictly control maintenance safety and schedule progress. The resumption time of the unit will be determined based on actual maintenance conditions, and information regarding the subsequent resumption of production of the unit will be subject to the company's formal announcements.