Rohm Chemical closed the traditional MMA plant and opened a new plant with revolutionary LiMA technology, increasing production capacity by 250,000 tons while reducing costs by 20% and carbon emissions by 30%. However, the Chinese MMA market is in a dilemma of plummeting prices and losses across the industry. Overcapacity and weak demand are in sharp contrast, and the industry reshuffle is accelerating.
Rohm Chemical recently announced the closure of its MMA plant in Westwego, Louisiana, while the new plant in Bay City, Texas using LiMA technology was fully put into production. This strategic adjustment not only reflects the acceleration of technological iteration in the chemical industry, but also reveals the profound changes in the global MMA market supply and demand pattern.
Rohm Chemical's capacity transfer is by no means a simple factory relocation, but represents a revolutionary breakthrough in the MMA production technology route. Its proprietary LiMA technology uses ethylene, natural gas and methanol as raw materials, and has achieved multiple breakthroughs compared to traditional processes: the annual production capacity of 250,000 tons has significant scale effects, and the increase in raw material conversion rate and product yield brings cost advantages. What is more noteworthy is the leap in its environmental performance - reduced energy consumption, improved water resource utilization, reduced waste, and especially a significant reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, which is highly consistent with the global chemical industry's low-carbon transformation trend.
This technological upgrade directly led to Rohm Chemical's replanning of its global production network. The closure of the Westwego plant is in sharp contrast to the commissioning of the new plant in Bay City. The former represents the withdrawal of the traditional production model, while the latter demonstrates the power of innovative technology to reshape the geographical distribution of the industry. This "new for old" capacity replacement model is expected to reduce Rohm Chemical's unit production cost by more than 20%, while reducing its carbon footprint by about 30%, significantly enhancing its competitiveness in the North American and global markets.
In the first half of 2025, the price of MMA and its downstream products in China generally fell by more than 1,000 yuan/ton, and some products even fell by more than 2,000 yuan/ton. What is more worthy of attention is the sharp contraction of profit margins: ACH process profits fell by 67% year-on-year, C4 process profits plummeted by 99%, and the downstream pure acrylic emulsion industry even had an extreme situation of -102.51% gross profit, which essentially means that the entire industry has fallen into the dilemma of production and loss.
The deep-seated reasons for this situation are:
Overcapacity pressure intensified: In the first half of the year, the domestic The domestic MMA market added 150,000 tons of new equipment, and the production capacity increased to 2.8 million tons/year, a year-on-year increase of 7.68%. If Jilin Petrochemical is successfully put into production in the second half of the year, the production capacity will continue to increase.
The demand side continues to be weak: the terminal industries such as construction and automobiles are weak in recovery, resulting in the growth of major downstream demand such as PMMA and ACR falling short of expectations.
In the second half of 2025, the MMA industry may show a "two-faced" development trend. Companies with technological advantages will continue to expand their market share. The commissioning of the Rombe City plant may further lower the global MMA price center; uncompetitive production capacity will be accelerated, and industry concentration is expected to increase. With the in-depth implementation of China's "dual carbon" policy, devices using traditional processes such as the ACH method may face stricter environmental protection constraints
