Crude benzene market is expected to narrow down

OPEC + confirmed that it will cut production by 10 million barrels per day from May 1, 2020, which is the first round of production reduction, but the market believes that this result is still unstable, and because the benefits of crude oil production have been digested early, the trend of crude oil is still under pressure. However, at present, pure benzene rebounded sharply. Sinopec raised the listing price of pure benzene three times this week, which made the market bullish and the bidding prices in the main production areas rebounded sharply. With the sharp increase in crude benzene prices, the price difference between crude benzene and hydrobenzene has narrowed, and hydrobenzene companies have continued to lose money. Can crude benzene maintain its upward trend in the future?

Crude benzene market has seen high prices this week, but most of them are caused by traders receiving goods. Since the price of crude benzene broke "2", traders entered the market and the bottom of the market increased greatly, but the terminal demand was not good, pure benzene went Due to poor cargoes, hydrobenzene companies are facing greater cost pressure and inventory pressure, and limited acceptance of high levels. At the same time, due to the continued losses of hydrobenzene enterprises, the operating rate of the hydrobenzene industry has dropped to about 40%. Over half of the domestic hydrobenzene plants have been overhauled. Among the pre-repaired hydrobenzene plants, only Shandong Hongchang is scheduled to restart within this week. Hebei Rongte was shut down for maintenance on April 7, and Shandong Rongxin, Ningxia Baofeng and Shatong Taixing hydrogenated benzene plants were shut down this Friday. The demand for crude benzene in the venue declined, and the crude benzene market continued to lack momentum in the later period.

From the supply side, the operating rate of coke enterprises has been relatively stable recently, and the environmental protection policy has remained loose. The overall operation has been around 70-80%. This week, the coke stocks of coke companies continued to decline, and the blast furnace operations of steel mills continued to pick up. The overall demand was good. For coke companies, 50 CNY/ton rose. There are no steel mills accepting them at present. The overall market pessimism has eased significantly. It is expected to remain stable. Although the supply of crude benzene is stable and the quantity of downstream goods has been reduced, traders have entered the market to grab the goods, which has led to tight supply in the market, and some coke companies are reluctant to increase sales. This has led to a sharp increase in crude benzene prices.

In general, the market news is long and short, and the pure benzene outer disk continues to rise, giving the market favorable support. The market still has expectations for Sinopec's pure benzene listing price, and traders are actively entering the market. However, the comprehensive start-up level of downstream hydrobenzene enterprises is at a low level during the year, and the demand for crude benzene is expected to continue to decline, and after these weeks of replenishment by traders, the enthusiasm for entering the market at a later high point is expected to weaken, and the terminal demand is still not obvious Improvement, the overhaul of the styrene plant is more concentrated, and the shipment of pure benzene is still blocked. It is expected that the crude benzene market is expected to have some room for increase next week, but the increase is expected to narrow, and the downstream still needs to be cautious about receiving goods.