Geopolitical factors disrupt the global adipic acid market, and significant breakthroughs have been

Geopolitical disturbances have shaken the global adipic acid market, and significant breakthroughs have been made in green synthesis technology.

Recently, the turmoil in the international geopolitical situation and a groundbreaking green production technology have become the two major focal points affecting the global adipic acid industry. While the market has experienced short - term sharp price fluctuations, it has also welcomed a new dawn for long - term sustainable development.

The escalation of the situation in the Strait of Hormuz has triggered a global cost - push price increase.

From late February to early March 2026, the geopolitical situation in the Middle East deteriorated rapidly. Market concerns about the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic global oil transportation route, soared, directly driving up international oil prices. As a key bulk chemical raw material, fluctuations in crude oil prices were quickly transmitted to the downstream industrial chain.

The prices of pure benzene and cyclohexanone, the upstream raw materials of adipic acid, received strong cost support and rose rapidly. Driven by the strong cost side, the global adipic acid market has witnessed a significant price increase. As of early March, the spot quotes in major Asian markets have exceeded 10,000 yuan, with a rise of more than 20% compared with the beginning of the month. This price increase is a typical cost - driven increase. Geopolitical risks are quickly transmitted downstream through the "crude oil - pure benzene - adipic acid" chain. It not only affects Asia, the world's major production area, but also puts imported cost pressure on regions such as Europe, supporting the prices of local adipic acid and its downstream products (such as nylon 66 and polyurethane).

The advent of the green electrochemical synthesis process is expected to reshape the future of the industry.

While geopolitics has caused market turmoil, positive signals have come from the scientific community. At the end of February 2026, a groundbreaking research result on adipic acid production was published in an international authoritative journal. Researchers have successfully developed a new method for the efficient electrochemical synthesis of adipic acid from cyclohexene using Pickering emulsion droplet integrated electrodes under normal temperature and pressure conditions.

This green process shows multiple significant advantages:

• Environment - friendly: Using water as a sustainable oxygen source fundamentally avoids the equipment corrosion problem caused by the use of strong oxidizing nitric acid in traditional processes and the environmental pollution risk of a large amount of nitrogen oxides (N₂O) as by - products.

• Mild conditions: The entire reaction process does not require high temperature and high pressure, greatly reducing energy consumption and production safety risks.

• Excellent performance: In a laboratory - scale continuous flow system, this technology achieved a Faraday efficiency of about80%and a selectivity of about95%, showing extremely high conversion efficiency.

• Industrialization potential: The system can operate stably for up to1000 hoursand has successfully achieved a synthesis at the 100 - gram level, proving its potential for large - scale industrial application from the laboratory.

This technological breakthrough provides a promising green alternative to the traditional high - energy - consuming and high - pollution adipic acid production process and is expected to drive the entire industry towards a more sustainable direction in the future.

Market outlook: Short - term fluctuations and long - term changes go hand in hand

In summary, the global adipic acid market is standing at the crossroads of short - term and long - term changes. In the short term, the oil price fluctuations caused by geopolitical risks will still be the main uncertain factor affecting the market price, and downstream industries need to closely monitor the upstream dynamics. In the long run, if green production technologies represented by electrochemical cooperation can be successfully promoted on an industrial scale, it will fundamentally change the industry's cost structure and competitive landscape, and provide key technological support for the green transformation of the chemical industry under the "dual - carbon" goal.