China Morning Snapshot – 20 July 2021

Dalian Commodity Exchange opens the trading day on a weak note as a result of the falling energy complex during the early trading hours, however, managed to regain some of the losses by the break-time. 

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

Total inventories at Sinopec and CNPC’s warehouses digested 30,000 tons from the previous trading day to 695,000 tons as of 20 July 2021. (Correction: Total stocks were at 725,000 tons on 19 July 2021. The previous snapshot reported at 735,000 tons.)

Sentiment in the domestic spot market weakens significantly after the large drop in the crude oil market as buyers await additional discounts, except for the LLDPE film market in the Northern area that still receives a good number of inquiries. 

Traders refused to concede to any large discounts claiming the lack of inventory pressure while the coal shortage in the country would continue to keep coal-based PP and PE tight moving forward.