Methanol Weekly Report 12 June 2020

Weekly Price Trend: 08-06-2020 to 12-06-2020

• The above graph focuses on the Methanol price trend for the current week. Prices have remained stable throughout this week. Domestic prices were assessed at the level of Rs.16.75/Kg for this week. There has been mixed trend in domestic values.
• By the end of the week prices were assessed around Rs 16.75/Kg for Kandla and Mumbai ports.

INDIA & INTERNATIONAL 

• This week domestic market prices of Methanol have remained vulnerable and were assessed around Rs.16.75/kg for this week for bulk quantity.
• Prices were not announced for this week for India. The regular assessment of prices will commence from next week onwards.
• There has been oversupply of Methanol in European market. The demand has improved but oversupply has curtailed the rise in prices for methanol. The European methanol spot price mid-point softened by €0.50/tonne from the previous week.
• Following price drops in the US and Asia this week, Europe is the highest-priced region for methanol spot for the first time since July 2019
• "There are good signs of slow demand picking up, slow degrees yes. But on the other side we do have fairly high inventory and stock globally; US, Europe and Asia, mainly in China - they have to swallow that first, before kick-off new demand," said a producer. Some players recommended that further production outages need to be carried out in order to help the market balance recover over Q3.
• There has been big slump in crude prices for this week. Oil prices crashed by 7 percent on Thursday, after the EIA reported on Wednesday.
• The plunge in prices set them on course for the worst daily crash since late April this year.
• Over the past few days, the oil market has been spooked by rising U.S. commercial inventories that suggest that the oil demand recovery is not as smooth as some had initially expected.
• The supply cuts have been driving the recent oil price rally, the market seemed to have banked on a steady global demand recovery similar to China’s after it exited lockdowns earlier than the other countries.
• On Thursday, closing crude values have decreased. WTI on NYME closed at $36.34/bbl. Prices have decreased by 3.26/bbl in compared to last closing prices. While Brent on Inter Continental Exchange is decreased by 3.18/bbl in compare to last closing price and was assessed around $38.55/bbl.  

Methanol unit 2 by Petronas Chemical Group to undergo brief maintenance

• Petronas Chemical Group (PCG) is planning to shut its Methanol unit no 2 for brief maintenance turnaround. The unit will be shutdown in the first half of June 2020 and will remain off-stream for around 2-3 weeks. Unit is based at Labuan in Malaysia and has the production capacity of 1.7 mln mt/year. 

$1 = Rs. 75.84

Import Custom Ex. Rate USD/ INR: 76.45

Export Custom Ex. Rate USD/ INR: 74.75