ICC: In this month, the trading volume of the needle coke market was weak, the operation rate of the needle coke industry was low, most coal measure needle coke enterprises did not start or produce asphalt coke, some oil type needle coke enterprises stopped work for maintenance, and the production load of the start-up enterprises was low, mainstream oil type needle coke enterprises developed and produced medium and high sulfur needle coke, which was being promoted to downstream customers. In April, the raw material market of needle coke was generally declining. Needle coke production pressure is relieved, needle coke should meet the downstream demand, the price has been properly adjusted. By the end of the month, the price of coal measure needle coke is 8,500-10,000 yuan/ton, oil series needle coke is 9,000-11,000 yuan/ton, and coal and oil series coke is 6,000-7,000 yuan/ton. In terms of import price, the price of coal measure needle coke in Japan is $1150-1250 / ton, and the price of coal measure needle coke in Korea is $1250 / ton. Oil series needle coke, Japan $2,500-2800 / ton, the United Kingdom in $1,600-1,800 / ton, negative coke price in $1,000-1,500 / ton.
Raw materials, this month coal asphalt market prices and oil slurry market prices have continued to decline. In terms of coal bitumen, the market supply and demand of coal bitumen are weak this month, the operation rate of coal tar deep processing industry continues to decline, the supply of coal bitumen is also gradually declining, the overall downstream delivery of coal bitumen is not good, the price continues to decline, by the end of the month, the price of mainstream modified bitumen is at 3,800-4,100 yuan/ton. Due to the continuous loss of steel mills, the iron and steel industry operating rate gradually downward, the future part of the blast furnace enterprises will reduce production, the demand of the coal industry will decline, coal tar production will decline, coal asphalt supply will further decline, with the current market demand for coal asphalt, May coal asphalt will decline after the trend of stabilization. In terms of oil slurry, the market price of oil slurry this month rose first and then fell. At the beginning of the month, the price of international crude oil increased, combined with the tightening of refineries' foreign shipments, and the market price of oil slurry rose. In the second half of the month, the international crude oil shock drops, the downstream receiving sentiment is not good, the oil slurry price begins to fall, the oil system needle coke production pressure has eased, the current medium and low sulfur oil slurry refinery inventory is not high, the downstream demand slightly improved, the refinery price is obvious, it is expected that the medium and low sulfur oil slurry price will remain stable in May.
Downstream, this month, the graphite electrode market weak stable operation, the price of the mainstream UHP600 at the end of the month in 22,500 -23500 yuan/ton, graphite electrode downstream electric furnace steel enterprises started to decline, the demand for graphite electrode is poor, in the short term to consume inventory, is expected to be graphite electrode for needle coke to purchase. In terms of anode material, the shipment pressure of anode material enterprises is relatively high this month, and the price of anode material has basically dropped to the bottom. At the end of the month, the demand for anode material has picked up slightly. The output of battery factory will increase in May, so the demand for anode material will have a rising trend, and the demand for raw materials of anode material will also increase compared with that of April. It is expected that the anode material industry chain will be destocked in May.
Generally speaking, the needle-coke market in April was in a weak position, and the price of upstream raw materials went down as a whole, but the production pressure of oil-series needle-coke enterprises still remained, and coal-series needle-coke enterprises had little intention to start work temporarily. The negative electrode material market would recover to some extent in May, and it is expected that needle-coke enterprises will generally maintain the business strategy of low operation, destocking and price stabilization in May.
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