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.

In 2018, the total output of 39 full-scale titanium dioxide enterprises that can maintain normal production in China was 29538,000 tons, an increase of 84,000 tons compared with 2017, an increase of 2.94%.

Of the total output of 2.953 million tons, rutile type accounted for 22.92 million tons, accounting for 77.61%; anatase type for 507.6 million tons, accounting for 17.18%; other titanium dioxide products such as non-pigment products accounted for 154,000 tons, accounting for 5.21%.

On January 22, the fluorite commodity index was 123.51, which was the same as yesterday. It was 3.12% lower than the cyclical peak of 127.49 points (2019-01-03), and 150.99% higher than the lowest point of 49.21 on December 18, 2016. (Note: Period refers to 2011-09-01 to date)

According to statistics, the recent domestic fluorite price trend is temporarily stable, the average domestic fluorite price as of 23 days is 3520 yuan/ton. Due to the impact of strict environmental protection inspection, some domestic fluorite plants have been shut down in the near future, while the supply of fluorite in the field has been relatively reduced, but the recent downstream market is not good, and the price of fluorite market has slightly declined. In addition to the low temperature, the low start-up rate of fluorite flotation units in the North has aggravated the shortage of domestic fluorite supply. In the southern fluorite market, the start-up of devices has also been reduced, and the supply of fluorite in the field is tight, but the downstream terminal receipt is not active, resulting in a slight drop in market prices. As of 23 days, the price of 97 fluorite wet powder in Inner Mongolia was 3200-3600 yuan/ton, the mainstream of 97 fluorite wet powder in Fujian was 3400-3700 yuan/ton, the price of 97 fluorite wet powder in Henan was 3300-3600 yuan/ton, and that of 97 fluorite wet powder in Jiangxi was 3200-3600 yuan/ton. The price of fluorite was slightly lower.

Fluorite downstream hydrofluoric acid market price trend is temporarily stable, as of 23 days domestic hydrofluoric acid market price is 12625 yuan/ton, hydrofluoric acid market price slightly declined short domestic fluorite price market. In addition, the upstream refrigerant products have more maintenance devices, the demand for upstream fluorite and hydrofluoric acid has weakened, the recent downstream refrigerant trading market has declined, and the price of hydrofluoric acid products has slightly declined. Recent market of refrigerant in downstream terminal market has been cool, with R22 refrigerant facility starting at 70%, R22 refrigerant facility starting rate declining, bulk water outlet quotation of main production enterprises declining to 17500-18500 yuan/ton, but there is no bulk water spot in the production enterprises, mostly with a small amount of cylinders shipped. In addition, the actual demand side of the market has declined, and the shipment market trend is poor. The domestic market price of R134a is slightly lower, the start-up rate of production enterprises is lower, the market demand for refrigerants is weakened, and manufacturers mainly export their products. However, the on-site transaction price does not change much, and the merchants purchase on demand. Recently, due to the impact of equipment maintenance, the upstream market demand for hydrofluoric acid has weakened. Generally speaking, there are many downstream negative factors, but because of the poor start-up of fluorite market devices and the high price of fluorite, Business Analyst Chen Ling believes that the price of fluorite market may be slightly lower due to the weakening downstream demand.

Kuala Lumpur, Jan. 22: Malaysian spot tin prices fell by $50 Tuesday to $20,600 a ton, Trading Volume 65 tons, 40 tons in the previous trading day.