China Morning Snapshot - 24 August 2018

Dalian Commodity Exchange continues rolling downhill this morning, ending the first half of the trading day losing three digits in value.  

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

Total inventories at Sinopec and CNPC’s warehouses reduced 5,000 tons from yesterday at 735,000 tons as on 24 August 2018. (Correction: Inventories at Sinopec and CNPC’s warehouses fell 35,000 tons on 23 August to 740,000 tons.)

Spot suppliers are not responding strongly to the plunge in futures trading, instead, taking time before jumping into price adjustment. “This is because we are still able to achieve deals at the lower end of the overall price range. Supply is not ample, and we do not see the need to follow closely the development on futures ground,” a trader said.

Converters have made good replenishment earlier this week and started to slow down a little toward the weekend. Players are hoping to see a stronger uptick in demand entering September due to the pre-holiday replenishment.