SHANGHAI, July 15 (SMM) - This week, the prices of mainstream refiners remained stable while the prices of small private refineries declined. Mainstream refineries had relatively stable shipments this week. Affected by the new capacity of anode materials, the prices of individual low-sulphur petroleum cokes continued to rise. The prices of PetroChina Jinxi Petrochemical Company rose by 400 yuann/mt, and the prices of automobile transportation was 7,800 yuan/mt. The petroleum coke prices of China Offshore Bitumen Co., Ltd. rose by 50 yuan/mt, and the quotation was 7,350 yuan/mt. In terms of private refineries, the shipment was average this week, and most in-plant inventories reached the median level, which also caused refiners to compete to lower prices.
In terms of supply, Wudi Xinyue decided to suspend for maintenance on this Thursday, and the resumption time has not yet been determined. On Friday, Rizhao Port reported that the port inventory was 1.035 million mt, an increase of about 57,500 mt from last Friday.
Brief comment: In terms of supply, the port inventory of petroleum coke increase, which put great pressure on domestic medium and high-sulphur petroleum prices. On the demand side, most of the aluminium carbon was produced on the demand. As the payment was slow the prices were fluctuated, the raw material inventory of small and medium-sized enterprises was still at a low level, and they purchased as needed. In terms of low-sulphur petroleum coke, some anode material companies also have demand for low-sulphur petroleum coke. Therefore, SMM believes that in the short term, the low-sulphur petroleum coke production will be stable and low-sulphur coke prices may still increase. The price of medium and high-sulphur petroleum cokes are expected to drop by around 200-500 yuan/mt due to the supply surplus and weak demand.