Summary: In early April, the ex-works price of prochloraz TC kept rising, mainly due to tight market supply, following equipment overhauls of part producers.

In early April, the ex-works price of prochloraz TC continued the uptrend during March, up by 14.58% MoM, but down by 1.79% YoY. The main reason for the price hike was the equipment overhauls by part producers, which resulted in short supply in the market. Among the major prochloraz TC producers, Jiangxi Huihe Chemical Co., Ltd. (Jiangxi Huihe) and Jilin Lesi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. were under equipment maintenance, while Yongnong BioScience Co., Ltd. was in normal operation in early April.

In the recent year, the ex-works price trend of prochloraz TC could be divided into three stages:

Recent years have seen rising demand for prochloraz since it can serve as a substitute for fungicide varieties such as triazole, benzimidazole and strobilurin. According to the latest release of the Monitoring Report on Pesticide Resistance of Agricultural Pests in China in 2023, provinces like Zhejiang, Hubei and Hunan have spotted strains of rice blast resistant to pyraclostrobin and azoxystrobin. It is advised that, during the disease control, prochloraz, isoprothiolane, tricyclazole, and similar fungicides with distinct modes of action could be alternated or rotated with strobilurin fungicides to retard the emergence of resistance.

The synthesis of prochloraz TC involves intermediates including imidazole, 2,4,6-trichlorophenol and triphosgene, with reactions such as amination, acylation, etherification, condensation, acidification, neutralisation and precipitation, generating a substantial amount of wastewater. In recent years, a part of enterprises reduced material loss and sewage production through process optimisation, for the sake of maintaining market competitiveness and satisfying the environmental protection requirements. In April 2018, the prochloraz TC line of Jiangsu Huifeng Bio Agriculture Co., Ltd. was required to suspend production due to environmental issues, and production resumed in March 2020. To lift market strengths, Jiangxi Huihe is carrying out an automation transformation and upgrading project on the 2,000 t/a prochloraz TC production installation to form a production scale of 3,000 t/a. The project passed the environmental impact assessment in Oct. 2023.