In the first quarter of this year, chemical prices generally fell. Some manufacturers even admitted that the business could not be done (epidemic + inventory backlog). In May, the chemical market finally swept away, and most domestic chemical raw materials started to rebound. Chemical products such as ethylene, asphalt, cyclohexanone, nylon chips, soft foam polyether, acetic anhydride, and polyester increased significantly.
Car sales turned positive for the first time after 21 months of decline
Minister of Industry and Information Technology Miao Wei said at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office at 10:00 on the morning of May 20 that after 21 months of sales decline, China ’s auto sales achieved positive growth for the first time in April. Under a series of stimulus policies such as purchase restrictions, tax reductions, and other stimulus policies, the automobile production and sales are booming, and the automobile industry has gradually bottomed out.
The sales volume of the automobile industry in April is expected to be 2 million units, a year-on-year increase of 0.9% and a chain increase of 39.8%. With the gradual stabilization of sales in the domestic auto market after mid-April, the impact of the decline in the auto market caused by the domestic epidemic is gradually fading. In May, the auto market has entered the post-epidemic era, and sales of passenger cars have stabilized. From May 1-10, retail sales of passenger cars increased by 12% month-on-month and decreased by 7.0% year-on-year. The sales in the domestic auto market in the second quarter are expected to show good development momentum.
Various indicators of the property market bottomed out
On the morning of May 15, the National Bureau of Statistics released data on the real estate industry from January to April 2020. The cumulative decline in sales of commercial housing, commercial housing sales, and development investment narrowed to 19.3%, 18.6%, and 3.3% year-on-year, respectively. Among them, the eastern and western regions have recovered faster. The cumulative decline in the sales area of commercial housing in the first four months has narrowed to less than 20%.
In April, the new housing construction area nationwide increased to 195.65 million square meters, an increase of 9.71% month-on-month, which is equivalent to the normal level in 2019. The transaction scale of the land market has rebounded sharply, and the newly started area has also returned to normal levels, and the amount of development investment supported by the two has continued to remain high.
Crude oil returns to around $ 30 / barrel
Recently, Saudi Arabia announced that it will "voluntarily" reduce production by 1 million barrels in addition to the OPEC + plan in order to maintain the stability of the global energy market. For a while, oil prices continued to rebound, and as of Wednesday (May 20) WTI July 2020 futures rose $ 1.53 per barrel at $ 33.49, and Brent July 2020 futures rose $ 1.10 per barrel at $ 35.75.
On the demand side, most countries began to relax the blockade measures during the epidemic. The demand for crude oil improved significantly and provided upward momentum for oil prices. On the supply side, optimistic expectations of deepening production cuts are expected to heat up. Saudi Arabia said Monday night that it will deepen production cuts by 1 million barrels in June / Day; The UAE and Kuwait also followed up and stated that they will reduce production by an additional 100,000 barrels / day and 80,000 barrels / day, respectively. In the short term, the crude oil market is bullish in the short term against the background of successive resumption of work in some countries.
The atmosphere of the domestic chemical market gradually picks up
Benefiting from the recovery of the international crude oil situation, coupled with the recovery of domestic domestic demand, the prices of energy and chemical downstream products have gradually bottomed out.
Among the 122 chemical products tracked by Mobike this week, 46 varieties rose last week, and the proportion of the number of increases rose from 26.23% in the previous week to 38.33%, and the number of decline varieties was 18, and the proportion of the number of declines decreased from 27.05% in the previous week to 15%.
Chemicals such as ethylene, asphalt, cyclohexanone, nylon chips, soft foamed polyether, acetic anhydride, and polyester have seen larger gains.
Source: Mobei Public Account
