Morning Market Update for Industrial Aromatic Solvents

1. Key Focus Points

• Crude Oil Futures: ICE Brent crude oil futures (December contract) closed at USD 108.79/bbl, down USD 0.76/bbl (-0.69% day-on-day).
• Refinery Sales Rate: The gasoline sales-to-production ratio for independent refineries in Shandong was 90%, up 20 percentage points from the previous day; however, production and sales were not balanced.
• Hydrogenation Plant Offers: Quotations from hydrogenation plants held steady but softened slightly, while the pace of actual transaction settlements slowed down.

Core Logic: Crude oil futures weakened marginally, driving downstream restocking based on genuine demand. Consequently, plant quotations remained stable but showed signs of easing.

2. Price Table

Notes:

1. Produced via hydrogenation cracking units using cracked C9 as feedstock.
2. All RMB prices listed above are ex-factory, cash-with-goods, VAT-inclusive prices.
3. The two price periods represent spot prices from the previous two working weeks before this week, not weekly averages.
4. Change rate refers to the day-on-day percentage change.

3. Market Outlook

International crude oil futures closed slightly lower, providing limited support to domestic industrial aromatic solvent prices. Yesterday’s gasoline production-sales balance was not maintained, with downstream customers purchasing only according to immediate needs. Hydrogenation plants may offer discounts to facilitate shipments. Therefore, the market is expected to trend steadily weaker today.