China Morning Snapshot – 04 August 2021

Both PP and LLDPE contracts for September settlement ended the morning session in the red, though the extent of reductions has narrowed compared to the previous day.

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

Total stocks at Sinopec and CNPC’s warehouses fell 5,000 tons in the previous day to 735,000 tons as of 04 August 2021.

Following the active trading sentiment in the previous day, Chinese customers tend to take a step back from the market to monitor further development and arranging logistics. Small volume discounts of CNY50-100/ton are available, yet, customers have not shown a strong interest. 

It is expected that coal supply in the country would remain tight in the near term following the shutdown at several coal mines in Shaanxi province, which affected 26 million tons of coal output after COVID-19 infection cases were detected among miners. Coal-based polyolefins plants might continue to face high costs pressure.