The Black China Blog

Green Coke

The market for green coke suffered a severe decline after the national day holidays. The price of 1A dropped 500-600Yuan/ton, to 2100 - 2200yuan/ton, back to the level of September 2007.

Jinzhou and Jinxi refineries, where the coke is mainly 1B grade, came down to 1500-2000yuan/ton. Although the 1B price of Jilin petrochemicals kept above 2000yuan/ton, it expected to match other refineries’ price soon.

The 2A - 3A price of along Yanzi river was lower than other regions due to high stock level. The actual trade price of high sulphur coke even fell to 1000Yuan/ton on some trades. Since many smelters increased environmental protection measures, it increased the pressure on high sulphur coke prices. Some refineries with their own electricity power plant increased the quantity of high sulphur coke as fuel. However, the market was still over supplied.

The operating rate of Shandong local refineries went down further. Some refineries currently undergoing overhaul are now revising their re-start dates.

Calcined coke

Along with the green coke price dropping, last week the price calcined coke dropped a lot

Last week the price of low sulphur calcined coke dropped 900-1000RMB/ton to 2900-3200RMB/ton, while moderate sulphur coke price slipped 250-350RMB/ton to 2800-3000RMB/ton. High sulphur calcined coke dropped 450RMB/ton to 2000-2200RMB/ton.

Anode

Due to the aluminum market weakness, the market demand for anodes kept decreasing. Nevertheless, the inventory level is still rising, and some foreign aluminum buyers also started to cut back. The outcome is that the price of anode dropped 100RMB/ton to 4200-4400RMB/ton last week.

Alumina

Last week alumina price kept stable. China imported alumina CIF prices are still between 390-400US$/Ton. The imported Alumina quotation didn`t change (3300-3350RMB/ton). The Domestic Alumina price is still 2750-2850RMB/ton (Non-Chinalco). The price from Chinalco stayed at 2900RMB/ton. Due to the aluminum smelters cut back, the demand for alumina keeps going down, while the inventory level was already high, so the price of alumina will fall further.

We are already seeing some alumina plants in China cutting back or stopping production. We will publish a separate post on this.

Aluminium

Last week the aluminium price from Chalco dropped 300RMB/ton to 14200RMB/ton, but in fact the price wavered around this mark through the week, dropping at one point to 13800. This price has caused some aluminium smelters about 2000RMB per ton operating loss. Small smelters are losing even more than this. There is no doubt more smelters will shut down.