Needle coke trend in Chinese market under the Russia-Ukraine conflict

Russia's military action against Ukraine on the 24^th, Feb. exceeded investors' expectations, causing extreme panic in the market. In terms of commodities, after the United States announced tougher sanctions against Russia, a major energy exporter, international crude oil prices soared intraday, rising by more than 9%, breaking through $100 for the first time since 2014. EAF steelmaking graphite electrode for your information. However, most of the gains were later reversed. 

International oil price shocks have an immediate impact on the Chinese market. Contact relevant experts and enterprises of needle coke industry chain for the first time to understand the market trend.

After the Spring Festival, due to the factors of rising international oil prices, the domestic needle coke market rose 1000 yuan, the current electrode with imported oil-series needle coke price is 1800 yuan/ton, and negative electrode with imported oil-series needle coke price is about 8500 yuan/ton. Domestic coal-series needle coke for negative electrode price is about 8000 yuan/ton.

After the festival, low sulfur coke price rose for three consecutive times, with a cumulative increase of 1000 yuan. The current price is 6900-7000 yuan/ton.

The rising price of raw materials has a direct impact on the downstream graphite electrode and negative electrode material market.

The graphite electrode market rose by 2000-3000 yuan/ton after the festival. At present, the mainstream transaction price of UHP600mm specification is 26000-27000 yuan/ton, and the market quotation continues to rise tentatively this week.

The negative electrode materials price increased by about 20% before the festival. At present, the low-end price reaches 38000-45000 yuan/ton, and the middle-end product is 55000 yuan/ton. Prices remained stable after the Spring Festival.

At present, it is believed that the international oil price has been at a high level and will return rationally after the high level in the next 1-2 months, which will not be regarded as a long-term factor affecting the trend of China's needle coke. However, negative electrode materials supply is still insufficient in 2022, and the price transmission channel to the downstream has been opened. In the later stage, needle coke price still has room to rise with the help of demand and cost. It is expected that the purchase price of domestic negative electrode materials for needle coke will exceed 10000 yuan in 2022. In the short term, the operating enthusiasm for coal-series needle coke price will be significantly improved.

According to the iron and steel industry, with the increase of electric furnace steel operation rate in March and the expected increase of domestic steel plants graphite electrode price due to the increase of raw material price in the later period, the reserve stock will be considered in the centralized procurement period in March, and recent graphite electrode price rise will be gradually implemented. Contact us for the latest graphite market news.