After pure benzene/hydrobenzene fell to 6000 yuan mark, driven by the favorable easing of national policy, the bullish sentiment of the market changed slightly, some traders and downstream bargain purchases, pure benzene/hydrobenzene transaction volume, promoted the price rise, as of June 16, Shandong oil benzene price was about 6220 yuan/ton, an increase of 80-140 yuan/ton. Laid the foundation for this week’s hydrobenzene rebound.

At present, the focus of the market is on the increase in the utilization rate of styrene capacity, the decline in the operating rate of phenol and the increase in pure benzene imports.

1, the main downstream styrene capacity utilization is expected to increase

Early part of the stopped styrene plant plans to restart, coupled with Zhejiang Petrochemical 600,000 tons of equipment has been placed at 15 o ‘clock on June 16, from China’s styrene production and capacity utilization data is expected to improve the overall. Styrene capacity utilization will increase the demand for pure benzene, will increase the consumption of pure benzene, but after the increase of styrene operating rate, it is still necessary to pay attention to the downstream matching of styrene, if the downstream of styrene is difficult to achieve synchronous improvement, styrene faces the situation of supply and demand reduction, after all, styrene will gradually enter the high temperature off-season.

2, downstream phenol ketone operating rate continues to decline

Recently downstream phenol ketone enterprises started at the level of 69%, month-on-month -1%. Among them, during the shutdown and maintenance period of Jiangsu Ruiheng, Shanghai Sisar and Gaoqiao Petrochemical phenol ketone units, Shenghong refining phenol ketone units had negative operation, so the phenol ketone operating rate continued to decline, reducing the consumption of pure benzene, and forming negative feedback on pure benzene/hydrobenzene.

3, China’s pure benzene imports are expected to increase

With the end of the concentration period of overseas maintenance, and the octane value logic has fallen through, Asia’s pure benzene needs to enter China for digestion, and it is expected that domestic pure benzene imports will increase, leading to a rise in domestic pure benzene supply, from the monthly import point of view, imports or from 200,000 tons to 300,000 tons of scale.

In addition, Hainan Refining and Chemical new 2.6 million tons of reforming feed, CNOOC Huizhou new 1.3 million tons of reforming output of aromatics and disproportionation is expected to be put into feed later, the domestic supply of pure benzene increased.

In the short term, involving the empty single replenishment at the end of the month, it is expected that the purchasing atmosphere of pure benzene/hydrobenzene may be improved, and the price of hydrobenzene may stabilize and rebound, but the rebound height and strength are limited, because the market is still in the negative news surface, and the medium and long line is treated with empty ideas.