Thermal power plants start maintenance mode and demand weakens periodically

In recent days, the demand of coastal coal market has been weakening obviously. With the entry into the overhaul period of power plant units, the daily consumption of the six major power plants has fallen. This week, the coastal coal market will maintain a weak trend of supply and demand, and coal prices will show a downward trend. However, due to the high cost of coal shipment and the shortage of port resources and other factors, coal trading prices in the Bohai Rim Port Market are still likely to rebound slightly at the end of the month.

April is the traditional unit overhaul season in coastal power plants, and the civil power load is reduced; and there is still a period of time before "peak summer", at this time, it is suitable for unit overhaul in power plants. Coastal power plants are no exception. Routine overhaul of the units under their jurisdiction has begun. It is normal for coal consumption to decrease. The data of

show that the daily consumption of the six coastal power plants fell to 61.1 and 590,000 tons on June 16 and 17, respectively. Especially on February 17, the daily consumption of the coastal power plants dropped to below 600,000 tons for the first time since mid-February. Among them, Zhejiang, Shangdeng, Guodian and Huaneng coastal power plants shut down and overhaul some of the thermal power units under their jurisdiction, and the daily consumption of the power plants decreased to varying degrees.

This week, South China entered the rainstorm season, coupled with the increase of rainwater in southwest China and the increase of hydropower generation from west to east, while the output of photovoltaic power, solar energy, gas power and other new energy increased in South China, which also reduced the thermal power and reduced the consumption of electricity and coal. At present, in the port around Bohai Sea, although the loading and unloading site is still busy, the delivery parties are mainly large coal and power enterprises, Changxie coal dominates, and the market coal haulage volume has declined. Coal trading around the Bohai Sea port is relatively cold, downstream receipts are mostly 3-5 yuan per ton of index price fluctuation, while traders mostly remain on the sidelines, and the actual volume of trade is reduced. Contrary to the decline in Port coal prices, the price of coal from the main producing areas has increased slightly since this week. Affected by the strict control of coal management tickets, coal production in Shaanxi is limited, coal supply is tight, coal queuing phenomenon is serious, and coal price has increased slightly. Influenced by the rising purchase price of big mining group, the coal mine in Inner Mongolia region shipped faster, with lower inventory and higher price. In Shanxi, driven by the good demand of port market and the increase of export volume, the supply of high-quality coal in North Shanxi is in short supply and the price of coal is rising.

Daqin Line will enter the second half of the overhaul. In the second half of April, it is expected that the inventory of Bohai Rim Ports will continue to decline. Influenced by the increase of industrial added value and the acceleration of infrastructure investment, the demand for downstream coal will gradually recover, the subsequent coal-drawing vessels will increase, and cargo phenomena such as ships will still exist. In the upstream coal mines, the safety supervision is becoming more and more stringent, and the price of coal in the producing area will rise, which will support the coal price in the port to a certain extent. At the end of this month, port coal prices are expected to stop falling and stabilize, with a slight pullback.