Report Industry Investment Rating No relevant content provided. Core View of the Report - Last week, the fundamentals of methanol remained weak, but the methanol futures fluctuated and consolidated under the boost of strong crude oil. The weighted methanol closed at 2,282 yuan/ton on Friday afternoon, up 0.26% from the previous week. The supply of methanol is still relatively abundant, and the demand such as MTO is expected to be weak. The spot market of methanol may be mainly weak. In the short term, it is still difficult to substantially improve the supply and demand of methanol, but the strengthening of crude oil boosts methanol, and the methanol price may still fluctuate [6][9][10]. Summary According to Relevant Catalogs 1. Methanol Trend Review - Last week, the fundamentals of methanol were still weak, but the methanol futures fluctuated and consolidated under the boost of strong crude oil. The weighted methanol closed at 2,282 yuan/ton on Friday afternoon, up 0.26% from the previous week. In the spot market, the unloading of foreign vessels continued to fall short of expectations, the提货 volume decreased significantly, the port methanol inventory increased slightly, and the downstream buying sentiment was weak, suppressing the market price. The price of methanol in the mainland had no strong positive support, and the downstream procurement was negative under the pressure of high inventory. After the news of external procurement of olefins in the production area spread, the market first declined and then rose, but the procurement situation was not ideal [12]. 2. Methanol Fundamental Analysis - **Production**: Last week, the domestic methanol production continued to decline. The number of methanol plant overhauls was more than that of restarts, and the capacity utilization rate decreased. The production was 1,943,465 tons, a decrease of 39,690 tons from the previous week, and the capacity utilization rate was 85.65%, a decrease of 2.00% month-on-month [15]. - **Downstream Demand**: As of October 23, the capacity utilization rates of some downstream products of methanol showed a downward trend. The overall start - up of the olefin industry decreased, the capacity utilization rate of DME decreased, the capacity utilization rate of chlorides decreased significantly, and the capacity utilization rate of formaldehyde decreased. Only the capacity utilization rate of glacial acetic acid increased slightly [18][19]. - **Enterprise Inventory**: As of October 22, the inventory of China's methanol sample production enterprises increased to 360,400 tons, a month - on - month increase of 0.13%, and the order backlog decreased to 215,700 tons, a month - on - month decrease of 5.79% [21]. - **Port Inventory**: As of October 22, China's methanol port sample inventory increased to 1,512,200 tons, a month - on - month increase of 1.39%. Affected by weather and other factors, the unloading of foreign vessels continued to fall short of expectations. The inventory in East China increased, the inventory in Zhejiang decreased, the inventory in South China showed destocking, and the inventory in Fujian increased slightly [24]. - **Profit**: Last week, the average weekly profit of China's methanol samples was poor. The profits of coal - based and coke oven gas - based methanol shrank, and the gas - based methanol remained in a loss state [26]. 3. Methanol Trend Outlook - **Supply**: This week, the number of restarts of domestic methanol plants may be more than that of overhauls. It is expected that China's methanol production will be about 1.9892 million tons, and the capacity utilization rate will be about 87.66%, an increase from last week [31]. - **Downstream Demand**: The start - up of olefin enterprises will continue to decrease passively. The capacity utilization rate of DME is expected to increase. The capacity utilization rate of glacial acetic acid is expected to decrease slightly. The capacity utilization rate of formaldehyde is expected to remain at last week's level. The capacity utilization rate of chlorides is expected to change little [32][34]. - **Inventory**: It is expected that the inventory of China's methanol sample production enterprises will be 341,300 tons, a slight destocking compared with last week. The port methanol inventory is expected to continue to accumulate [34]. - **Overall**: The fundamentals of methanol are still weak, but the strengthening of crude oil boosts methanol. In the short term, methanol is likely to continue to fluctuate and consolidate [34].