1、 Price trend

Mixed xylene prices continued to rise this week, according to data from the business agency’s bulk list. On April 18, the price of mixed xylene was 5770 yuan / ton; The price of this Sunday (April 25) was 5790 yuan / ton, up 20 yuan / ton from last week, or 0.35%.

2、 Analysis and comment

This week, Sinopec’s mixed xylene price adjustment range is +50 / +150 (yuan / ton). Xylene inventories in East China port fell this week. The demand for gasoline has declined in stages, the other downstream news is weak, the market center of mixed xylene has fallen back and the price rise is weak. On the external market, as of April 23, the price of imported mixed xylene in South Korea was 763.5 USD / T, while that of April 16 was down 8.5 USD / T, or 1.1%.; The reference price of domestic imported mixed xylene was US $781 / T, which was down by $5 / T, or 0.64% on April 16.

On the crude oil side, the crude oil this week maintained a range of shocks. Good: some of Libya’s oil fields are shut down and supply is reduced. Bad: India is the third largest oil importer in the world. The number of COVID-19 infected COVID-19 has skyrocketed, and some areas have implemented blockade measures, and the recovery of crude oil demand has been suppressed. The U.S. commercial crude oil inventory has unexpectedly increased. Brent fell 0.345 US dollars / barrel this week, or 0.52 percent, on April 16; WTI fell $1.05/barrel, or 1.66 percent.

In the downstream and PX market, the factory price of p-xylene in China remained stable this week, with the price of 6400 yuan / ton, up 48.84% year on year. The overall operation of p-xylene plant in North China and East China is stable, with the site operating rate of more than 90%, the supply of goods in the site is normal, the goods are in good condition, about 50% in the northwest and over 50% in South China. The Asian region closed at $830-832 / T FOB Korea and $838-840 / T CFR China as of April 23.

PTA market, PTA prices in East China this week fell slightly, Friday (April 23) at 4566.36 yuan / ton, down 0.61% from last week, up 42.2% from the same period last year. Due to the compression of processing cost and poor profit, PTA device is still in the centralized maintenance period.

In the ox market, the ox price this week rose from last week, while on Friday, the price of ox in East China was 5900 yuan / ton, up 5.36% from last week, up 40.48% from the same period last year. The aromatics plant event of Yangzi Petrochemical Company pushed the o-xylene market of Sinopec up. The price of the external market of phthalate rose in shock, the cost level was temporarily stable, and the downstream market rose.

3、 Future forecast

Xylene analysts of the chemical branch of business society think: on the supply cost side, opec+ production reduction implementation, the total number of us oil drilling platforms and weekly EIA and API inventory data. Second, the demand side, the impact of global epidemic on crude oil demand, the recovery of industrial chain, and the economic and trade situation in Europe and America. Third, we will look at the geopolitical situation between the Middle East and the United States, the progress of the new crown vaccine, the dollar index and the stock market linkage.

Crude oil is expected to operate in a strong way, supporting the price of mixed xylene. The demand for gasoline was improved significantly before the festival, and there was still room for upward price, and the demand for mixed xylene increased, but the demand of the other downstream still remained unchanged. The follow-up was general and the increase of mixed xylene was restricted. In a comprehensive way, it is expected that mixed xylene will be in good price operation next week, and pay attention to the downstream purchase news before May 1st quarter. We will continue to pay attention to the trend of blending price of crude oil and gasoline, spring maintenance dynamics of mixed xylene plant, port inventory and downstream demand changes on the price of mixed xylene.