1、 Price trend

According to the price monitoring of the business agency, the average ex factory price of sulfur market in East China at the beginning of this week was 533.33 yuan / ton, while the average ex factory price at the weekend was 503.33 yuan / ton, down 30 yuan / ton, down 5.63%, 62.99% compared with last year.

2、 Market analysis

Product: this week, the domestic sulfur price trend was reduced by a narrow range, and the sulfur quotation of individual refineries was temporarily stable according to their own shipment. On the port side, the inventory is still high, with small factories and traders occasionally entering the market for enquiries and relatively limited transactions. In the week, refineries all over the country continued to maintain low inventory operation, because environmental protection and production restriction problems still exist, and downstream factories still maintained low level to start operation, and major production enterprises made downward pricing in order to alleviate inventory sales pressure, among which, the quotation in East China was temporarily stable, the price of sulfur in Shandong was significantly reduced by 30-60 yuan / ton, and that in North China by 30 yuan / ton.

Industrial chain: the downstream sulfuric acid market is stable, moderate and downward, and the local market is up and down. In Shandong Province, the price trend was stable and rising, up 3.53% in the week, and the average market price was increased by 10 yuan / ton. The price rise is mainly caused by traders’ stock up and partial supply reduction. The downstream demand is continuously depressed, without substantial improvement, unable to support the market upward. In addition, with the Spring Festival approaching, in order to ensure that the inventory is not under pressure, the enterprises give priority to the stable price of goods, and the short-term benefits are hard to be realized.

According to the price monitoring of the business agency, in the list of commodity prices in the 51st week of 2019 (12.23-12.27), there are 22 kinds of commodities in the chemical industry sector, including 1 kind of commodity with an increase of more than 5%, accounting for 1.2% of the number of commodities monitored in the sector; the top three commodities are chloroform (10.53%), epichlorohydrin (4.42%) and propane (3.82%). There are 21 kinds of commodities falling on a month on month basis, and one kind of commodities falling by more than 5%, accounting for 1.2% of the number of commodities monitored in this sector; the top three products falling are sulfur (- 5.63%), phosphate rock (- 3.20%), lithium carbonate (- 3.06%). This week’s average was 0.11%.

3、 Future forecast

According to the sulfur analyst of the business agency, at present, the port inventory is high, the downstream factories purchase on demand and small orders, and there is no substantive good guidance on supply and demand. In addition, the internal and external support is weak, so most of the operators are cautious and wait-and-see. It is expected that sulfur will be sorted and operated in the short term, depending on the plant conditions in the future.