The Urethane Blog
October 19, 2021
China Jawbones Coal Markets With Meaningless “Market Intervention” Headlines As It Becomes Desperate
by Tyler DurdenTuesday, Oct 19, 2021 – 05:45 PM
What’s wrong with communism? The latest example comes from China, where central planners told state-owned energy companies to panic buy coal which sent prices to the moon. Now the communist government is battling market forces with meaningless headlines to jawbone prices lower.
Just as thermal coal futures on the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange catapulted to new heights, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China’s top economic planner, announced in the Tuesday overnight Asian session that it has a plan to intervene in coal markets to halt the rally, according to Bloomberg.
The headlines were empty and meaningless. It may suggest that Beijing is running out of options to stymie the price rally ahead of the Northern Hemisphere winter, where national stockpiles of fossil fuels are at extremely low seasonal levels. NDRC said it would examine various measures to intervene in markets. It said it had a “zero tolerance” for market participants spreading fake news or conspiring with others to push prices higher.
Here’s NDRC’s most desperate headline:
“The current price increase has completely deviated from the fundamentals of supply and demand,” NDRC said in a statement published on WeChat.
Seriously? The reason prices are sky-high is because of supply and demand dynamics. The agency went on to say it “will study-specific measures to intervene in coal prices and promote the return of coal prices to a reasonable range,” adding that it would increase coal output to 12 million per day and give coal transportation through ports and railroads the highest priority.
Beijing even sent Vice Premier Han Zheng on China National Radio Tuesday to praise the “powerful measures to curb speculation and hoarding in energy markets.” Still, we have no idea how the communist government plans to intervene in markets – just jawboning markets at this point.
What caused the latest leg up in coal prices was when Beijing’s state-asset regulator last month ordered state-owned energy companies to acquire coal supplies at all costs. This forced coal prices higher and resulted in more power blackouts across the country.
China derives 50% of its power from coal. If prices continue to rise, local authorities will have to continue shutting down energy-intensive industries to protect the grid. In return, this will weigh on not just the domestic economy but also the global economy.
Central planners have already told state-owned mines in Yulin, a major coal hub in Shaanxi province, to reduce coal prices by 100 yuan per ton less than spot.
An analyst with Daiwa Capital Markets told clients in a note that favorable supply and demand dynamics suggest elevated coal prices will remain through winter. More or less, whatever Beijing has up its sleeves, could be uneventful in reigning in coal prices back to normal levels.
China has also taken additional steps to alleviate the energy crunch by allowing coal-fired power prices to fluctuate by up to 20%, enabling power plants to pass on more of the high costs of generation to commercial and industrial end-users.
The bottom line is that Beijing is throwing the proverbial “kitchen sink” to reign in coal prices with meaningless statements that may fail to arrest prices in the months ahead as supply and demand dynamics show central planning is the wrong way to manage an economy.
https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/coal-prices-drop-beijing-studies-market-interventions
October 19, 2021
China Jawbones Coal Markets With Meaningless “Market Intervention” Headlines As It Becomes Desperate
by Tyler DurdenTuesday, Oct 19, 2021 – 05:45 PM
What’s wrong with communism? The latest example comes from China, where central planners told state-owned energy companies to panic buy coal which sent prices to the moon. Now the communist government is battling market forces with meaningless headlines to jawbone prices lower.
Just as thermal coal futures on the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange catapulted to new heights, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China’s top economic planner, announced in the Tuesday overnight Asian session that it has a plan to intervene in coal markets to halt the rally, according to Bloomberg.
The headlines were empty and meaningless. It may suggest that Beijing is running out of options to stymie the price rally ahead of the Northern Hemisphere winter, where national stockpiles of fossil fuels are at extremely low seasonal levels. NDRC said it would examine various measures to intervene in markets. It said it had a “zero tolerance” for market participants spreading fake news or conspiring with others to push prices higher.
Here’s NDRC’s most desperate headline:
“The current price increase has completely deviated from the fundamentals of supply and demand,” NDRC said in a statement published on WeChat.
Seriously? The reason prices are sky-high is because of supply and demand dynamics. The agency went on to say it “will study-specific measures to intervene in coal prices and promote the return of coal prices to a reasonable range,” adding that it would increase coal output to 12 million per day and give coal transportation through ports and railroads the highest priority.
Beijing even sent Vice Premier Han Zheng on China National Radio Tuesday to praise the “powerful measures to curb speculation and hoarding in energy markets.” Still, we have no idea how the communist government plans to intervene in markets – just jawboning markets at this point.
What caused the latest leg up in coal prices was when Beijing’s state-asset regulator last month ordered state-owned energy companies to acquire coal supplies at all costs. This forced coal prices higher and resulted in more power blackouts across the country.
China derives 50% of its power from coal. If prices continue to rise, local authorities will have to continue shutting down energy-intensive industries to protect the grid. In return, this will weigh on not just the domestic economy but also the global economy.
Central planners have already told state-owned mines in Yulin, a major coal hub in Shaanxi province, to reduce coal prices by 100 yuan per ton less than spot.
An analyst with Daiwa Capital Markets told clients in a note that favorable supply and demand dynamics suggest elevated coal prices will remain through winter. More or less, whatever Beijing has up its sleeves, could be uneventful in reigning in coal prices back to normal levels.
China has also taken additional steps to alleviate the energy crunch by allowing coal-fired power prices to fluctuate by up to 20%, enabling power plants to pass on more of the high costs of generation to commercial and industrial end-users.
The bottom line is that Beijing is throwing the proverbial “kitchen sink” to reign in coal prices with meaningless statements that may fail to arrest prices in the months ahead as supply and demand dynamics show central planning is the wrong way to manage an economy.
https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/coal-prices-drop-beijing-studies-market-interventions
October 19, 2021
Houston, October 18, 2021
Dear Valued Customer,
The industry is experiencing an increasing number of social engineering activities, scams and other cyber-
crime activities. We care about our customers and want to reinforce practices that can support you in preventing damage caused by these activities.
Below we reinforce a few principles that will help you to protect your company and its assets.
• Our customers pay their invoices on the bank account mentioned on the invoice; we suppose that you
have in place electronic system alerts in case the account number on the invoice does not match the LYB
account number active in your systems.
• Any LyondellBasell request to change the remit-to bank account where you pay your invoices,comes only
in writing from us by email from your LyondellBasell key account manager or contact mentioned in
the Notice section of the relevant Contract.
• In case of doubt, prior to making any payment, and in case you receive written instructions to pay the
invoice on another bank account then mentioned on the invoice you are always supposed to do a double
verification by
• i) get this change confirmed by email from the person and by the email account mentioned
in the Notice section of the Contract / Regular (sales) contact and
• ii) have this change confirmed by phone by your regular Sales contact.
• Only email addresses with the @lyb.com and @lyondellbasell.com annotation originate from our
company. In the event you do not recognize the name of the sender or it is misspelled, please do not open
the email or any of the attachments and contact your IT department immediately.
• Please reach out immediately, to your LyondellBasell Sales contact, in case of any suspicious email
communication or other activity from which it appears that it originates from LyondellBasell.
We will never ask for your personal information, or password.
Please always remain vigilant, and do not hesitate to reach out to your Sales contact regarding
any questions you might have. Together, we can reduce the potential for loss for our companies as it
relates to web-criminality.
Kind regards,
October 19, 2021
Houston, October 18, 2021
Dear Valued Customer,
The industry is experiencing an increasing number of social engineering activities, scams and other cyber-
crime activities. We care about our customers and want to reinforce practices that can support you in preventing damage caused by these activities.
Below we reinforce a few principles that will help you to protect your company and its assets.
• Our customers pay their invoices on the bank account mentioned on the invoice; we suppose that you
have in place electronic system alerts in case the account number on the invoice does not match the LYB
account number active in your systems.
• Any LyondellBasell request to change the remit-to bank account where you pay your invoices,comes only
in writing from us by email from your LyondellBasell key account manager or contact mentioned in
the Notice section of the relevant Contract.
• In case of doubt, prior to making any payment, and in case you receive written instructions to pay the
invoice on another bank account then mentioned on the invoice you are always supposed to do a double
verification by
• i) get this change confirmed by email from the person and by the email account mentioned
in the Notice section of the Contract / Regular (sales) contact and
• ii) have this change confirmed by phone by your regular Sales contact.
• Only email addresses with the @lyb.com and @lyondellbasell.com annotation originate from our
company. In the event you do not recognize the name of the sender or it is misspelled, please do not open
the email or any of the attachments and contact your IT department immediately.
• Please reach out immediately, to your LyondellBasell Sales contact, in case of any suspicious email
communication or other activity from which it appears that it originates from LyondellBasell.
We will never ask for your personal information, or password.
Please always remain vigilant, and do not hesitate to reach out to your Sales contact regarding
any questions you might have. Together, we can reduce the potential for loss for our companies as it
relates to web-criminality.
Kind regards,
October 19, 2021
Dow unveils zero-carbon growth initiatives for $3B EBITDA boost
Oct. 06, 2021 7:10 AM ETDow Inc. (DOW)By: Carl Surran, SA News Editor
- At its Investor Day, Dow Inc. (NYSE:DOW) outlines plans to deliver more than $3B in additional EBITDA by 2030, while keeping capital spending at or below depreciation and amortization, as well as driving the company toward zero-carbon emissions across its global asset base.
- Dow says it expects near-term capital and operating growth investments will increase EBITDA by $2B, and a new net-zero carbon emissions ethylene and derivatives complex will deliver $1B in EBITDA.
- Dow also unveils plans to build the world’s first net-zero carbon emissions ethylene facility and convert the assets at its Fort Saskatchewan site in Alberta to create the first net-zero carbon emissions complex for scope 1 and 2 carbon dioxide emissions.
- The company says the investments will decarbonize ~20% of its global ethylene capacity while growing its polyethylene supply by 15%.
- Dow also signs eight new renewable energy agreements in Europe and America.
- Dow’s Investor Day presentation
https://seekingalpha.com/news/3749305-dow-unveils-zero-carbon-growth-initiatives-for-3b-ebitda-boost
Everchem Updates Archive 
Sign Up for Email Updates