SMM News on February 23:
Anode material prices remained weak this week. On the cost side, petroleum coke prices were stable during the Spring Festival holiday with normal production and shipments based on orders. With insufficient downstream support after the holiday, the rising trend before the holiday has basically stalled, and there are risks of a small decline afterwards. The demand for oil-based needle coke continued to weaken during the Spring Festival holiday. Currently, the demand from downstream anode companies is extremely limited. Needle coke companies have mostly adjusted production focus to petroleum coke and calcined needle coke graphitization. Graphite outsourcing companies are currently under great survival pressure. In order to ensure production, some companies have quoted prices lower than costs, while the demand for outsourcing in the market continues to decline. On the demand side, downstream demand declined further during the Spring Festival holiday. Together with the sluggish logistics and other reasons, the order volume of anodes was quite limited. The market is slowly warming up after the holiday, and it is difficult to see a significant boost in demand in the short term. Most anode companies maintain low-load operations after the holiday, mainly to observe market dynamics. It is expected that anode material prices will remain stable in the short term, but the industry still has problems of overcapacity with fierce market competition. It is expected that there are still possibilities for prices to go downward afterwards.
