1、 Price trend

According to the data from the bulk list of business associations, the price of pure benzene showed a downward trend this week and rebounded slightly at the weekend. On June 28, the listed price of pure benzene was 3250-3500 yuan / ton (average price was 3360 yuan / ton); this Sunday (July 5), the listed price of pure benzene was 2900-3300 yuan / ton (average price 3140 yuan / ton), down 220 yuan / ton, or 6.55%, compared with last week.

2、 Analysis and comment

This week, Sinopec’s pure benzene decreased by 200 yuan / ton to 3100 yuan / ton compared with last week; the listing price of Sinopec’s pure benzene decreased by 500 yuan / ton for three consecutive weeks. Due to the high level of port inventory, enterprises have greater pressure to ship. However, as the price continued to fall, Sinopec’s price was low, the downstream profitability improved, and the downstream buying interest rose slightly.

The external market fell sharply at the beginning of the week and rebounded later. On Friday (July 3), South Korea imported 422.33 US dollars / ton of pure benzene, a decrease of 2 US dollars / ton, or 0.47% compared with June 26; and that of East China was 424 US dollars / ton, up 3.5 US dollars / ton, or 0.83% higher than that of June 26.

Thanks to the improvement of economic data, oil prices stopped falling and rose this week. Compared with June 26, Brent was up $2.375 per barrel, or 5.83%, while WTI was up $2.11 per barrel, or 5.46%. Compared with December 31, 2019, Brent decreased by 35.38%, and WTI decreased by 32.93%.

On the downstream side, as of July 5, the styrene price in Shandong was 5366.67 yuan / ton, down 83.33 yuan / ton or 1.53% compared with last week.

Cost side deep fall, aniline downstream reception enthusiasm decreased, in order to promote shipment, aniline price down this week. On July 5, the price of aniline in Shandong was 4100-4180 yuan / ton, and that in Nanjing was 4100-4300 yuan / ton.

3、 Future forecast

The external plate appears to be warming, crude oil also showed an upward trend, to the domestic market guidance upward. Lower prices led to the rise of downstream purchasing enthusiasm, enterprises bargain hunting, far month prices driven rebound. But the port inventory is still high, pure benzene is still under pressure.

Benzene is expected to rebound next week, but the range is not large.