Plunge in n-Heptane Imports from China Drives Indian Prices

Mumbai, India: According to the latest monitoring data of ChemAnalyst, the n-Heptane market rebounded in India this week. Post consumption of existing inventories, solvent demand fundamentals from the domestic market rallied upwards. Furthermore, the raw material supplies tightened from the exporting country with the resurgence of Covid.

As China witnessed a rise in infections, new Covid lockdown restrictions were imposed across the major cities, including most parts of Shanghai. The city declared that millions of residents would be subjected to mass testing. As a result, the factory operations were again suspended to curb the infection rate. This interruption halted solvent exports to India, thereby tightening supplies across the domestic market.

Meanwhile, the OPEC Basket that India buys oil from stood at a record height on Thursday. As per the data obtained from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell, the Indian crude basket on 9th June marked USD 123.21, unseen since February-March 2012. OPEC production grew by 0.1mmbpd from Q1 to Q2, compared to a required rise of 0.8mmbpd, demonstrating its failure to boost supply growth. Even if the Ukraine crisis ended, sanctions against Russia would not be lifted soon, boosting optimistic oil prices, according to Elara Capital, a global financial advisory firm.

On the other hand, post experiencing a prolonged downhill trend, the Indian n-Heptane market is paving substantial grounds with spot demand for June restoring in several regions. After gaining more than 3 per cent over the last few days, the Ex-Mumbai realizations for n-Heptane hovered around INR 165000 per Metric Ton.

As per ChemAnalyst, “the price discussions of n-Heptane are expected to stay buoyant in the forthcoming period on the back of soaring crude oil value. With the Russia-Ukrainian conflict dragging on, OPEC’s 648,000 barrels a day production increase from July is considered too little, according to our market sources. Also, the consumption from the domestic market is predicted to be robust in the coming weeks.”