International trends
Domestic petcoke supply continues to shrink
In March, the refinery was in the traditional maintenance season, coupled with the recent general profit performance of local refineries, the on-load of the atmospheric and vacuum unit of the refinery was reduced to varying degrees, resulting in the shortage of coking raw material - residue resources, some coking units fell into losses, some coking units were overhauled and reduced production, and the overall petroleum coke supply was reduced. In March, the total output of petroleum coke from refineries in China was 2,566,600 tons, down 1.79% from February.
Supply side: In March, due to the tension between Russia and Ukraine, Iraq and Saudi crude oil exports decreased, which promoted the further upward trend of oil prices, refinery refining costs increased significantly, most local refineries reflected that there was no profit in refining or even fell into losses, and the load of atmospheric and vacuum equipment was generally reduced.
Demand side: The recent downstream aluminum carbon market is weak, some enterprises are still losing money in production, and enterprises are mainly purchasing raw materials on demand. Negative electrode material field inquiries, orders increased, individual enterprises to purchase in the market, but the overall demand has yet to recover, the price support for petroleum coke is limited.