Methanol Weekly Report 04 August 2018

Weekly Price Trend: 30-07-2018 to 03-08-2018

The above graph focuses on the Methanol price trend for the current week. Prices have followed volatile trend for this week. By the end of the week prices were assessed around Rs 31.75/Kg for Kandla and Rs 31.75/kg Mumbai ports.

Booking Scenario

INDIA&INTERNATIONAL

• This week domestic market prices of Methanol have followed volatile trend and by the end of the week prices were evaluated at Rs 33.75/kg for Kandla and Rs 33.75/kg for Mumbai ports.     
• CFR India prices were assessed in the range of USD 380/MTS. Prices have increased by USD 5/MT in compares to previous week.
• CFR China prices were evaluated at USD 392/MT. Prices have plunged in compare to last week.
• As per report, this week China's methanol futures escalated by 5.01% on account of bullish buying sentiments.
• Canada based Methanex has posted its North American and Asian contract prices for the month of August 2018. Prices posted for the region of North America are USD 485/MT. Prices reduced by USD 11/MT for this month. Prices for the Asian Pacific region has also reduced by USD 11/MT for the month of August. The new prices for Asia Pacific region is around USD 480/MT. These prices are valid till 30th August 2018.
• China’s Shenhua Ningxia shuts No 4 methanol plant.
• Iran based Zagros Petrochemical Company has shut down its Methanol no2 last weekend. This shutdown was not planned and happened due to some technical issue. The unit is likely to resume its production by this weekend. The plant is based at Asaluyeh in Iran and has the production capacity of 1,65,000 mt/year.
• The methanol producer, Methanex, has announced it has signed agreements with gas suppliers that are expected to enable it to operate at over half its capacity until 2029.
• The Centre will give ten new buses to the Assam government which would be run by methanol as a pilot project for public transportation. Assam Petrochemicals Limited (APL) will supply the methanol for the new buses.
• OCI Beaumont has shut down its Methanol unit owing an unplanned outage. The unit was shut down last week probably due to steam methane reformer issue. This issue is likely to take two weeks to get sorted out. The unit is based at Beaumont in Texas and has the manufacturing capacity of 912,500 mt/year.
• This week oil prices have followed mixed trend. On Thursday oil prices traded slightly higher, reversing course after a report that crude stockpiles at the U.S. storage hub at Cushing, Oklahoma fell in the latest week.U.S. stockpiles have been in the spotlight because they rose unexpectedly last week, stoking fears that the market is becoming oversupplied.
• On Thursday, closing crude values have increased. WTI on NYME closed at $68.96/bbl. Prices have increased by $1.30/bbl in compared to last closing prices. While Brent on Inter Continental Exchange increased by $1.06/bbl in compare to last closing price and was assessed around $73.45/bbl.

 $1 = Rs. 68.60
 Import Custom Ex. Rate USD/ INR: 69.25
 Export Custom Ex. Rate USD/ INR: 67.55