1、 Price trend
According to the data of the business club’s bulk list, this week’s pure benzene continued the last week’s market and continued to rise, but the rise slowed down; the focus of the talks fell in the near weekend. On April 12, the price of pure benzene was 2850-3800 yuan / ton (average price 3180 yuan / ton); this weekend (April 19), the price of pure benzene was 3000-3900 yuan / ton (average price 3350 yuan / ton), 5.35% higher than last week.
| Melamine |
2、 Analysis and comment
1. Product: after last week’s bottom reading, the market speculation started to slow down this week. On Tuesday, Sinopec’s listing price of pure benzene was increased by 150 yuan / ton to 3050 yuan / ton. East China’s port inventory continued to accumulate. This week, the downstream factories in the north were active in purchasing, the spot supply in the market was insufficient and the price was high. The East China Shandong arbitrage window opened to support the pure benzene market.
3. Outside: on Friday (April 17), South Korea imported 345.67 US dollars / ton of pure benzene, up 27.34 US dollars / ton, up 8.59% from April 10; East China imported 372 US dollars / ton, down 4 US dollars / ton, down 1.06% from April 10.
3. Crude oil: OPEC + oil producing countries finally reached the largest production reduction agreement in history, but the strength was not as expected by the market, unable to offset the impact of public health events on demand collapse. This week investors returned to reason after a brief “euphoria” over the agreement to cut production and crude oil fell back. Brent fell $3.59, or 15.13%, this week from April 9, while WTI fell $3.79, or 13.15%. Compared with December 31, 2019, Brent decreased by 69.83% and WTI by 58.81%.
4. Downstream industry: this week, the styrene market price fell, and the rising sentiment in the market dissipated. Most domestic enterprises reduced prices and promoted sales, and kept stable shipments. On Friday, Shandong’s price was 5150 yuan / ton, down 0.64% from last week.
| EDTA 2Na |
Stimulated by the sharp increase in cost, the downstream enterprises of aniline stepped up their stock preparation; the inventory of aniline enterprises was cleaned up, and the price rebounded. On Friday, Shandong’s price was 5500 yuan / ton, while Nanjing’s price was 5600 yuan / ton, with a weekly increase of 9.93%.
3、 Future forecast
1. Crude oil: relevant people predict that the world crude oil consumption will shrink by 20 million barrels / day in 2020. If demand collapses, without strong intervention from the supply side, it will be difficult for oil prices to strengthen. Moreover, the short-term agreement on production reduction cannot offset the negative impact of the sharp contraction of demand, and the oil market cannot get rid of the dilemma of excess supply and demand. In addition, crude oil consumption enters into the off-season from April to may, and seasonal factors will aggravate the imbalance between supply and demand in the oil market, thus making the oil price face the risk of downward focus.
2. Market: East China – Shandong arbitrage open, East China region source of goods into Shandong, or inhibit its price. At the same time, the support of pure benzene was weakened. It is expected that the purchase of pure benzene will return to light in the later stage. Downstream styrene just need to take the goods, wait and see.
It is expected that pure benzene will go down next week, but not much.
| EDTA |