Caught between the two ends, the price of coal pitch is high and thin

In early November, after the perfect interpretation of the "Golden Nine Silver Ten" market, the price of domestic coal pitch remained stable at a high level, and there was still a rise of 100~200 yuan (ton price, the same below) in some areas
.
As of November 10, the domestic prices of medium temperature coal pitch and modified coal pitch rose to 7,600 yuan and 7,700 yuan respectively, an increase of 5.
5% and 5.
4% respectively.
The high-end prices of medium-temperature coal pitch and modified coal pitch in Northwest China even exceeded 8,600 yuan, repeatedly hitting a record high
.
The coal pitch market has a trend
from "summer" fire to "winter".
However, after entering mid-November, the coal pitch market weakened
.
This has also triggered concerns in the industry about the future market
.

"This year, for coal pitch enterprises, although the price continues to hit new highs, but the profit is very small, it is good to be profitable in combination, resulting in this situation of high price and low profit are the 'disaster'
of raw coal tar.
" We passively follow the adjustment under the upstream push, and the downstream is not strong, and the price increase is resisted, resulting in the company's operating rate never meeting expectations, and the cost remains high
.
Li Xiaofei, sales manager of Chifeng Boyuan Technology Co.
, Ltd.
, said
.

Upstream coal tar even reached a new high

Li Xiaofei said that the price of raw high-temperature coal tar has risen continuously since May 2020, especially since May this year, it has hit a record high, from 1,800 yuan in May 2020 to 6,400 yuan in early November this year, an increase of 255% in two and a half years, resulting in the cost of coal pitch enterprises being repeatedly pushed up
.
In the past two years, the downstream consumption of coal pitch has been weak, and there are many obstacles to digesting high costs, but in order to transmit cost pressure downward as much as possible, coal pitch enterprises can only sacrifice the operating rate to achieve the purpose of
limiting production and maintaining prices.
This is also one of the
reasons why the operating rate of deep processing enterprises has never been effectively improved.

A person in charge of a coal tar deep processing enterprise in Hebei reported that in the process of rising coal pitch prices, the continuous increase in raw material prices has played an important role
.
For coking enterprises with self-supporting deep processing, the problem of digesting cost pressure is not big, but enterprises that rely on external raw materials for deep processing can only passively follow the rise
.

Midstream coal pitch passively followed up

According to information from Henan Chemical Network, from May 2020 to November this year, the price of coal pitch increased by 230%, and the rising curve was basically synchronized
with coal tar.
"Coal pitch as the main product in the deep processing of coal tar (accounting for more than 55%), from the historical trend chart can be seen that coal pitch price in addition to synchronous rise in raw material prices, another important feature is that most of the time its price increase is lower than the raw material increase, and the price adjustment lags behind the growth rate of raw materials
.
This makes the price of coal pitch continue to hit new highs, but the profit is very low, and even the embarrassing situation
of losing most of the time.
Huo Sheng, head of a coal tar deep processing enterprise in Liaoning, said
.

Market monitoring information also confirms this statement
.
In June ~ August this year, although the price of coal pitch has been in a rising trend, the company is in a state of loss
.
This is because its increase is not enough and the operating rate is low, resulting in increased
costs.

Demand in the downstream industry is weak

From carbon enterprises in Henan, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi and other places, we learned that due to the regional epidemic in October and environmental protection and other factors, carbon enterprises were not working enough, and the market was in a wait-and-see mood
.
At the same time, the commodity market is also showing a downward trend, with the decline in electrolytic aluminum prices, industry losses, declining production enthusiasm, and insufficient consumption of coal pitch, resulting in the peak and weakening of coal pitch prices in mid-November, and a slight decline
in high-end prices.

Henan electrolytic aluminum trader Li Bing said that the proportion of theoretical losses in the whole industry of electrolytic aluminum in October has expanded from 20% in September to 38%.

Among them, the cost of electrolytic aluminum in Henan remained above 20,000 yuan, while the price of electrolytic aluminum fluctuated
at 18,000 yuan.
In this regard, the boycott of upstream high-priced raw materials has formed a consensus in the industry, and it is expected that this trend of resisting the high price of basic raw materials will continue, and in the short term, it will still form greater pressure
on upstream coal pitch enterprises.
As the price of coal pitch began to weaken in mid-November, the profit margin of deep processing enterprises returned to near the cost line, for example, the average profit of coal tar deep processing enterprises in the main producing area of Shanxi has dropped from 150 yuan at the beginning of the month to about
50 yuan in the middle of the month.

Industry veterans analyzed that although the current coal pitch market continues to hit a record high, enterprises have not benefited from profitability, which is one of the main reasons why the comprehensive operating rate of
deep processing enterprises can only maintain 45%.
In addition, due to the current coal tar deep processing products in addition to coal pitch such as anthracene oil, industrial naphthalene rise momentum is insufficient, the washing oil market consolidation, phenol oil, light oil prices and other factors, coal tar deep processing enterprises are still facing greater profit pressure in the short term, the trend of raw coal tar still plays a key role
in the coal pitch market.