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H acid surges 400%! Strong price increase on raw materials! Reactive dyes adjust prices again

On November 1, domestic leading company Zhejiang Longsheng issued a notice on the adjustment of reactive dye prices, announcing that the approval prices of reactive dyes will be increased by 3,000–5,000 yuan per ton based on the original approved prices, with a maximum increase of 5,000 yuan per ton. Multiple mainstream reactive dye products have simultaneously updated their execution prices: Reactive Yellow 3RS 150% is priced at 40.00 yuan/kg, Reactive Brilliant Red 3BSN 150% at 58.00 yuan/kg, Reactive Blue B 150% at 60.00 yuan/kg, Reactive Black CK-RW at 50.00 yuan/kg, and both Reactive Black C-G and Reactive Black NG at 60.00 yuan/kg. The notice also clarified that other reactive dye products not listed in the table will follow similar adjustment rates. This round of price increase represents a full-category coordinated adjustment.
From the perspective of the upstream textile dyeing and printing supply chain, this dye price increase is not an initiative to raise prices by the company but is driven by the continuous surge in the prices of core dye intermediates. Dye manufacturers’ cost pressures have become difficult to absorb internally and must be passed down to the printing and dyeing end.

1 H acid surged 400% within the year, becoming a key driver of price increases

Tracing the driving logic of this round of market trends, the trigger for the market surge was not the dye products themselves; the core driver is the indispensable key intermediate H-acid used in the production of reactive dyes. Coupled with the simultaneous strengthening of p-position esters, these two raw materials have created a dual-factor scenario that pushes up dye costs.

H-acid, as an important coupling component of reactive dyes, accounts for 30%‑50% of the production cost of reactive dyes, with very few alternative options. Fluctuations in the raw material price are directly transmitted to the finished dye products. As of now, the market price of H-acid has risen to 200,000 yuan per ton, compared to approximately 40,000 yuan per ton at the beginning of the year, representing a 400% increase within the year, far exceeding the early market forecasts within the textile supply chain.

2 The supply side continues to tighten, further widening the supply-demand gap.

The production process of H acid involves high-risk nitration and sulfonation procedures, with relatively high thresholds for safety production and environmental management. In recent years, small and medium-sized capacities in the industry have continuously exited the market. Coupled with multiple factors such as unexpected shutdowns and centralized maintenance of main production units, the domestic effective production capacity of H acid has fallen below 60,000 tons, resulting in a market supply-demand gap exceeding 10%. Meanwhile, another key intermediate, para-isomer ester, has also faced supply contractions, leading to synchronized market price increases; these two intermediates together have driven up the cost of dye raw materials.

Intermediates account for 60%-80% of the total production cost of reactive dyes. With H acid reaching a high price of 200,000 yuan per ton, the production cost curve for dye enterprises has risen significantly. For small and medium-sized dye enterprises without supporting intermediate production capacity, operational pressure is even more pronounced. Upstream raw material prices fluctuate frequently, but downstream textile and dyeing companies have limited capacity to absorb dye price increases, making it difficult to fully pass on costs. As a result, enterprise profits are squeezed from both ends. For many companies, increasing dye prices is no longer a business strategy choice but a practical necessity to sustain production operations.

3 Integrated leading companies also find it difficult to hedge costs, and the entire range of dyes is experiencing systemic price adjustments.

As an industry-leading company with integrated intermediate production capabilities, Zhejiang Longsheng has a stronger ability to withstand raw material fluctuations compared to most of its peers. Nevertheless, it still chose to significantly raise the prices of its entire range of reactive dyes in November, with increases of up to 5,000 yuan per ton. This sufficiently demonstrates that the current round of raw material cost pressures has already exceeded the capacity that internal cost reductions and inventory adjustments can offset.

The notice requiring synchronized price adjustments for other products also indicates that this is not a tentative increase on a few varieties, but a systematic price adjustment across the entire product line in response to raw material pressure.

From the perspective of the textile industry chain, reviewing the trend of reactive dyes since the beginning of the year until November, dye prices have not steadily risen. Instead, they have surged in phases following the supply gaps of H-acid and para-esters. The industry generally believes that as long as the tight supply situation of H-acid and para-esters is not alleviated, the cost pressure on dye companies will be difficult to relieve.

Post time: Nov-10-2026