A wave of price increases has swept China's dye industry, with leading producers including Zhejiang Longsheng and Runtu raising prices in early September 2026.
Domestic H-acid prices reached 150,000 yuan per tonne, up 275% from about 40,000 yuan per tonne at the start of 2026. As of Sept. 16, mainstream industrial-grade H-acid ex-works quotes were concentrated in the 130,000-150,000 yuan per tonne range.
H-acid production involves hazardous sulfonation, nitration, alkali fusion and hydrogenation processes, and generates about seven tonnes of high-salinity, hard-to-degrade wastewater per tonne of product. Effective domestic capacity is estimated at under 60,000 tonnes against nominal capacity of 80,000-100,000 tonnes, leaving a supply gap of more than 10%.
The reduction compound, another key dye raw material, rose from about 25,000 yuan per tonne at the end of 2025 to 100,000-120,000 yuan per tonne, a gain of nearly 380% year to date. Only Zhejiang Longsheng, Runtu and a few Ningxia producers can make it.
Zhejiang Longsheng raised reactive dye prices in late August, with yellow series up 4,000 yuan per tonne and red, navy, black and turquoise series up 5,000-10,000 yuan per tonne. Runtu and Yabang also issued price increase letters, and Zhejiang Sanfeng Chemical issued further intermediate price increases on Oct. 9.
