As of September 2024, petroleum coke prices continue to be shaped by a mix of market forces, including shifts in global demand, supply chain adjustments, and external factors such as geopolitical developments. This analysis provides a clear and concise look at the latest pricing trends, offering insights into the current market dynamics and expectations for the remainder of October 2024.
Petroleum Coke Market Overview
Compared with August 2024, price for low and medium sulphur stop to increase slightly. Looking at high sulphur, it has a decreasing trend.
Concretely speaking:
At the beginning of September 2024, there is a trend of polarization. For low sulphur petroleum coke, it traded warmly and pushed the price climb. In contrast, for medium and high sulphur petroleum coke, its prices fluctuated slightly and it traded moderately. From supply aspect, it had a small increment. Purchasing enthusiasm for downstream enterprises is weak, such as graphite electrode and anode material. Overall, petroleum coke price decreased, especially for high sulphur coke. Average price for petroleum coke is 242 USD/MT approximately.
In the middle of September 2024, the situation is similar to the beginning, whatever in price, trend or supply side. Concretely speaking, price for low sulphur petroleum coke increased, for medium and high sulphur, price is decreased. Most of downstream enterprises had a weak demand for it, except for carbon industry. However, one’s power is limited after all, it is limited to support the price for petroleum coke market. Hence, overall petroleum coke market price decreased slightly.
At the end of September 2024, compared with recent weeks, the overall petroleum coke market did not change a lot. For low and medium sulphur petroleum coke, the price has a rising trend in this period. On the contrary, price for high sulphur petroleum coke was another scene. At the same time, it is limited for downstream enterprises to support the petroleum coke market.
As the figure 1 shows, we can see clearly the average price for petcoke market in September 2024.
Fig. 1 Average Price
Fig. 2 Forecast Price
Forecast Price for Petroleum Coke
From supply side, based on the information we have, for supply of domestic petroleum coke, maybe it will have a slight increment. As for imported coke, downstream market is relatively stable and it is possible for the inventory to decrease at the beginning of October 2024.
From demand side, plenty of downstream enterprises maintain just-needed purchase for petcoke, their purchasing enthusiasm is not strong, thus, it is limited to support the price. At least for now, its outlook is not optimistic, such as silicon carbide, glass and other industries and it is difficult to change the situation in the short term. Overall, we anticipate that demand of downstream market is weak in the next stage.
In conclusion, it is possible for supply of petroleum coke to increase at the beginning of October 2024. But every coin has two sides, price do not change a lot in the short term, despite we anticipate that supply will increase slightly. Meantime, downstream enterprises still have a strong waiting mentality and it encounters National Day holiday coincidentally. Therefore, for high sulphur petroleum coke, we forecast it will stop to fluctuate; for low and medium, it will be stable in this level.
Fig.2 shows the price we forecast at the beginning of October 2024 for three types of petroleum coke.
