In 2023, the overall trading of the imported petroleum coke market was weak, and the oversupply of imported petroleum coke continued to exceed demand throughout the year due to the continuous arrival of orders from import traders. As the price of domestic petroleum coke continues to fall, the price of imported coke is obviously inverted, and the spot inventory at the port has increased to a new high in recent years.

Since 2023, spot petroleum coke at the port has continued to accumulate, constantly creating a record high. As of December, the total port petroleum coke inventory was 4.674 million tons, an increase of 2.183 million tons or 87.64%.

In the first half of 2023, a large number of imported petroleum coke continued to reach the domestic market, with a total of 9,685,400 tons of petroleum coke imports, an increase of 2,805,200 tons or 41.7%. In the first half of the year, with the arrival of imported coke in the domestic market, and most of the high-price long-term association orders, due to the high cost of domestic resources, there is no advantage, the downstream demand performance is poor import coke shipment speed is slower, the contradiction of oversupply in the market highlights, coupled with traders’ reluctance to sell is strong, the port spot inventory once rose to more than 5.5 million tons.

In the second half of the year, with the cautious entry of the domestic demand market and the low volatility of domestic coke prices, the overall shipment of imported petroleum coke was poor, and the port inventory was maintained at more than 4.3 million tons. In the fourth quarter, due to the high price of imported coke outboard and the serious inversion of the new arrival cost at the port, traders’ reluctance to sell and some low-price domestic petroleum coke have port operations, the port spot inventory rose again to about 4.6 million tons. Imported sponge coke market demand support is not good, the northern port by domestic resources impact of shipment slowed down, petroleum coke long-term high operation. Along the river and in South China, pellet coke and some high-sulfur fuel coke were shipped by downstream demand, and traders actively shipped port inventories slightly decreased.

In the first half of the year, the price of imported shot coke dropped from 2,500 yuan/ton at the beginning of the year to 1,700 yuan/ton, the domestic coke price also continued to decline, the petroleum coke market downturn, the overall shipment rate of spot petroleum coke at the port slowed down, and the weekly port volume of the main port was about 100,000 to 300,000 tons. In the second half of the year, with the arrival of low-cost imported coke in the domestic market, the port spot price hedging shipments improved, and the weekly petroleum coke shipments in the main ports increased to about 420,000 tons, but the imported petroleum coke prices pushed up weak overall maintained at 1500 yuan/ton.

Future market forecast:

In January, the domestic petroleum coke market was trading well, and the transaction price pushed up the volume of spot petroleum coke signed at the port. As of mid-January, the weekly volume of petroleum coke at the port reached about 310,000 tons, and the petroleum coke inventory declined to about 4.5 million tons. Longhong Information learned that the amount of petroleum coke expected to arrive in Hong Kong in the first quarter was significantly reduced, and affected by international events, some route transportation was blocked, additional costs such as imported coke freight premium and transportation time increased, and the cost of petroleum coke outer plate continued to increase.

It is expected that in late January, most of the port petroleum coke will execute the order contract volume, and the port spot inventory will continue to decline slowly due to the decline in the volume of imported petroleum coke.