China Morning Snapshot – 25 August 2021

Dalian Commodity Exchange concluded the morning session with little changes from the previous day as traders assess the reopening of the Zhoushan Port and 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 fell 60,000 tons in a single trading day – the largest drop in weeks. As of 25 August 2021, the stocks stand at 680,000 tons. 

Chinese traders said that the drastic reductions in local inventories were mainly due to the fact that key producers are pushing cargoes to the distribution market ahead of the month-end closing. “Our customers still just buy hand-to-mouth basis. We hope to see stronger demand in September as the manufacturing season kickstarts,” a trader added. 

The reopening of the Meishan terminal at the Ningbo-Zhoushan port – the world’s third busiest container port would allow buyers to unload parcels that were stuck at the port over the past two weeks. Buyers might withhold purchases to estimate the stock on hand.