NEW YORK, Feb. 13 – COMEX copper rose Wednesday as prospects for Sino-US trade negotiations were optimistic.

The most active COMEX copper contract for March rose $0.0010 to $2.7730 per pound.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Nuchin said Wednesday that trade talks with China are progressing smoothly. Two of the world’s largest economies are now trying to reach an agreement to settle trade disputes.

The long-standing Sino-US trade dispute is expected to be resolved, helping global stock markets rally for a week on Wednesday.

According to the monitoring of business associations, domestic hydrogen peroxide prices fell sharply in January. At the beginning of the month, the average price of hydrogen peroxide was 860 yuan/ton. At the end of the month, the average price of hydrogen peroxide was 780 yuan/ton. The price fell by 9.3%.

In January, near the Spring Festival holidays, hydrogen peroxide terminal demand performance is not good, large factories are not confident enough to bid, one after another lowered the price of hydrogen peroxide. Hebei Zhengyuan, Xinhua and other manufacturers quoted about 850 yuan/ton at the beginning of the month, which was lowered to 750 yuan/ton at the end of the month. Shandong manufacturers’quotations are relatively stable, Haineng lasts 850 yuan/ton, Luxi’s quotation is 760-780 yuan/ton, and near the end of the month, the volume increases, and the price returns to 780 yuan/ton. Anhui market is mainly weak and stable, lasting 850 yuan/ton.

Business Club hydrogen peroxide analysts believe that after the Spring Festival, hydrogen peroxide is still in the off-season, the market will remain stable.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is the largest copper producer in Africa. Its copper production increased by 12.9% to 1.2 million tons in 2018.

Cobalt production, a key component of batteries for electric vehicles, rose 43.8% to 106,439 tons and gold production increased 22.6% to 28,539 kg.

According to Anxun Houston on January 25, strong growth in U.S. production continued to drag down the contract price of propylene in January, and the market is expected to continue to face downward pressure in the short term.

Propylene contract prices in the United States fell at the end of 2018 due to increased propylene production from cracking plants, refineries and other sources, as well as end-of-year de-inventory restrictions on demand. At the end of 2018, U.S. propylene stocks rose to a three-year high.

In 2019, due to the increasing demand for downstream replenishment stocks and the recent price decline, which has increased the interest of propylene derivatives exports, it was originally expected that tight supply would bring some upward pressure on the given price.

Despite the increase in demand, strong production in January has outpaced demand growth. Propylene stocks continued to increase in 2019, reaching the highest level in seven years.

According to a report released on Friday by Baker Hughes, a US energy service company, the number of active drilling rigs in the United States increased this week for the first time since 2019, but the number of drilling rigs in January recorded the largest decline since April 2016, as the prosperity of the largest shale oil block in the United States = the Permian Basin began to cool.

The closely watched Baker Hughes report shows that as of the week of January 25, the number of active oil rigs in the United States increased by 10 to 862.

The number of active drilling rigs decreased by 23 in January, the largest monthly decline since April 2016. In the past two months, there were two fewer seats in December and 12 more in November.

As a leading indicator of future crude oil production in the United States, the number of active drilling rigs in the United States is still higher than 759 in the same period last year. However, with crude oil prices expected to fall from last year, oil companies said they planned to cut drilling rigs.

The US Energy Information Agency (EIA) reported this week that shale oil production in seven major shale oil blocks is expected to rise to a record high of 8.2 million barrels a day in February.

However, EIA said that the Permian shale oil production in February will record the smallest increase in one month since May 2018. U.S. crude oil futures traded below $54 a barrel on Friday, and contracts are expected to fall in the first week of four weeks in recent months, as U.S. fuel inventories surge and global economic concerns depress markets.

Looking ahead, crude oil futures for the rest of 2019 and 2020 are likely to trade around $55 a barrel. Cowen & Co, the US financial services company, said this week that its tracking of exploration and production companies (E&P) reports showed that capital expenditure plans increased or decreased differently this year, after about $88.7 billion in capital expenditure plans for 2018, 23% higher than the $72.2 billion in 2017.

Baker Hughes also reported that this week there were 1,059 active oil and gas rigs in the United States, most of which produced both oil and gas.

Analysts at Simmons & Co, an energy arm of Piper Jaffray, an investment bank, this week predicted that the total number of oil and gas rigs will fall to an average of 999 in 2019 and 1,087 in 2020.