China Morning Snapshot – 16 August 2021

In spite of the weakness on the energy complex, major contracts for September delivery on Dalian Commodity Exchange persist in the positive territory throughout the morning session today.

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

Over the weekend, total stocks at Sinopec and CNPC’s warehouses rose 85,000 tons to approximately 765,000 tons as of 16 August 2021.

The firm futures market has not provided sufficient support to the domestic spot market. The market is pervaded with heavy concerns over the rapid spreading of the Delta coronavirus variant and the zero-tolerance policies from the government. Apparently, the port of Zhoushan remains shut at the time of this report. 

“We are willing to negotiate with serious buyers, but customers prefer to monitor further market movement first before making decisions. The inventories at local producers and traders’ warehouses are manageable and we hope the market would have the support to remain stable in the coming days,” a trader added.