Price Trend

According to the business association’s data, the price of pure benzene in China rose sharply this week, rising 200-300 yuan/ton. This week, the highest price of pure benzene appeared from Thursday to Friday, and the price was 4900-5050 yuan/ton, an increase of 3.95% compared with last week.

II. Analytical Review

1. Products: This week, the domestic pure benzene market is very enthusiastic. Monday was the beginning of the month, as the contract delivery task was completed at the end of June, the enthusiasm for market surge eased. On Tuesday, news began that South Korea exported only 20,000 tons of pure benzene to China in June, and the stock of East China Port declined, boosting the market, the market sentiment was strong.

2. Crude oil: This week, oil prices showed a slight rebound trend after falling. Overall, Brent fell nearly 2% compared with last week, and WTI fell more than 4%. Oil prices fell early in the week on fears of a slowdown. On Wednesday, news of three consecutive weeks of decline in U.S. crude oil inventories and a nine-month extension of OPEC’s cut-off agreement boosted oil prices. Oil prices rose twice this week. After the second increase, downstream conflicting sentiment was strong and pure benzene speculation eased.

3. Downstream: The price of styrene rose by 2.27% this week, supporting the price of pure benzene.

4. External trading: US pure benzene prices continue to slump, Asia-US price gap continues to narrow, threatening the Chinese market, CFR China negotiations began to increase recently.

III. Future Market Forecast

1. Crude oil: Next week, although the upward momentum of oil prices is slightly weakened by market worries, OPEC production reduction is prolonged, and the bottom support of the decline in U.S. crude oil inventories is more obvious, and the overall trend of oscillation and warming will continue.

2. Domestic market: Sinopec’s listing price still lags behind the spot market. There is still much room for the increase of listing price in July, which will boost the market. Moreover, the inventory of East China Port has been declining, and the pick-up speed has been significantly improved compared with the previous period, and the market is expected to be further supported.

3. External trading: US spot resources arrived and prices began to fall, but the Asian-American window remained open. Short-term Korean resources still flowed to the US arbitrage, which supported domestic spot prices.

Taking into account, next week’s pure benzene market may continue a slight upward trend, but the increase is limited.