China Morning Snapshot – 19 May 2021

Dalian Commodity Exchange extended the weakening trend throughout the morning session on the back of the falling crude oil market. 

Details on the spot and futures prices are shown in the following table:

Total inventories at Sinopec and CNPC’s warehouses digested 10,000 tons from the previous trading day to 755,000 tons as of 19 May 2021. 

The lackluster sentiment in the domestic spot market intensifies by mid of the week as buyers prefer to wait on the sideline due to soft end product orders and cloudy near-term outlook. “It appears that customers have procured sufficiently. We only managed to forward sell some quantities at lower levels,” a trader reported.

The export window might open again in the near term would local prices continue to fall, widening the price gap with the stabilizing Southeast Asian market.