Latest information on bulk raw materials

macroscopic

1. The Bank of England has cut interest rates by 25 basis points, lowering the benchmark rate from 4.75% to 4.5%, in line with market expectations and marking the third rate cut in this round of rate cuts. The Bank of England has lowered its economic growth forecast for 2025 and raised its inflation forecast.

2. The number of initial jobless claims in the United States increased by 11000 to 219000 last week, slightly exceeding the expected 213000. The number of people who renewed their unemployment benefits the previous week increased by 36000 to 1.886 million.

3. Retail Sales in the Eurozone: In December 2024, retail sales in the Eurozone decreased by 0.2% month on month, with the previous value revised from a 0.1% increase to remain unchanged; A year-on-year increase of 1.9%, with the previous value revised from a 1.2% increase to a 1.6% increase.

4. Bank of Korea: In December 2024, South Korea achieved a current account surplus of 12.37 billion US dollars, setting a record for the highest amount in the same month of the year. The annual surplus reached 99.04 billion US dollars, more than three times that of 2023.

chemical industry

1. The Equinor 900000 ton/year methanol plant in Norway has recently restarted and will continue to shut down from May 2024 to January 2025.

The 2 # 1.7 million tons/year methanol plant of Petronas in Labuan was shut down before the Spring Festival and has now resumed operation; 1 # 660000 tons/year unit is operating normally; Sarawak's 1.75 million tons/year plant continues to shut down.

2. It is reported that as of February 6th, Huafeng Chongqing Chemical Co., Ltd. has been operating a new production line with an annual capacity of 1.15 million tons/year of adipic acid for more than two months.

3. On February 6th, Inner Mongolia Huaheng had three sets of 104000 tons of BDO units, one of which was shut down while the other two were operating stably.

4. As of February 6th, the inventory of liquid alkali sample enterprises with a capacity of 200000 tons or more in their warehouses nationwide was 450500 tons (wet tons), an increase of 86.42% month on month and 32.17% year-on-year.

5. As of February 6th, the total inventory of domestic soda ash manufacturers was 1.8451 million tons, an increase of 415600 tons or 29.07% compared to the previous period. Among them, there were 833100 tons of light soda ash, an increase of 262200 tons compared to the previous period, and 1.012 million tons of heavy soda ash, an increase of 153400 tons compared to the previous period.

6. On February 5th, the total shipment of diethylene glycol from the two storage areas in Zhangjiagang was 854 tons, which was 9 tons higher than the total shipment from January 27th to February 4th during the Spring Festival holiday. As of now, the inventory of the two warehouses is 55700 tons.

7. On February 5th, the outflow of ethylene glycol from mainstream ports in East China was as follows: about 11200 tons of ethylene glycol were shipped from a mainstream warehouse area in Zhangjiagang; The shipment volume of ethylene glycol from the two main storage areas in Taicang is about 3000 tons.

8. It is reported that in January 2025, the import volume of sulfuric acid in China is expected to be around 16000 tons, an increase of about 108% month on month, but still at a low level; The export volume is expected to be around 480000 tons, a decrease of about 7.64% compared to the previous period.

9. It is reported that from 2020 to 2024, domestic PDH will enter a long-term expansion cycle, with a total of 15.16 million tons of new production capacity added, and an average annual compound growth rate of 32.7%. By the end of 2024, the national annual production capacity of PDH will reach 20.82 million tons.

10. On February 6th, the price of Hebei Shunkang coconut shell activated carbon with an iodine value of 800 yuan increased by 20 yuan to 8500 yuan/ton (including tax before leaving the factory). Currently, the inventory of activated carbon is about 50%, and the monthly output is 400 tons.