This time, chemical companies have a feeling that they have been forced to a dead end—natural gas prices have just risen, and now coal has to rise again!
At the just-concluded National Key Coal Production, Transportation and Demand Coordination Meeting, the National Development and Reform Commission decided to cancel the coal price increase that was not signed with a long-term contract at the end of 2004 under the premise of maintaining the overall stability of electricity coal prices. Caps' price interventions. The state’s move to liberalize the maximum price of coal increased the contract price of coal at the meeting by at least 30 to 40 yuan per ton. This is undoubtedly a blow to the chemical companies that originally had no say in the supply and marketing of coal.
In recent years, chemical companies that are in the downstream of the industrial chain have been repeatedly chased by the rising prices of raw materials. The introduction of coal-fired linkage policies in the second half of 2004 has paved the way for power companies to increase their electricity prices. For every 1 cent increase in electricity price, for most fertilizer companies, it is a cost of several million yuan or even tens of millions of yuan. This time, the increase in coal prices is a public deprivation of the profits of chemical companies. At present, except for natural gas, domestic chemical fertilizer companies basically use coal as their source of production. These companies are even more stunned by the 'breaking limit' of coal prices.
Wang Yi, General Manager of Shijiazhuang Jinshan Petrochemical Fertilizer Co., Ltd., said that this year's coal linkage will be anxious: 'The factory washing coal will rise 40 yuan per ton, and it will be implemented on urea. The cost per ton of urea will increase by 36 yuan, equivalent to a ton of ammonia. Is to increase the cost of 60 yuan. Urea-restricted exports have led to a sharp expansion of domestic production capacity, leading to a downward trend in urea prices. Even if the production capacity does not increase, the price of chemical fertilizers will not increase. Businesses are now relying on little or no. The only thing we can do is to realize the cost reduction by tapping potential changes. However, the current ton of ammonia has been reduced to 1.5 tons, and this standard has been difficult to improve. According to reports, at the convergence meeting, the company signed a contract for 420,000 tons of coal, so that only one increase in coal price increases the cost of 16 million yuan.
It is understood that the use of anthracite in the country's chemical companies is between 200 million and 250 million tons, and the “washing block†is the best raw coal for chemical companies. The biggest feature of this meeting was the surge in demand from chemical companies, while the supply of coal showed a declining trend, and many of the coal used in the index could not be honored.
Yan Yinghua, general manager of the strategic planning department of Hebei Xuyang Coking Group Co., Ltd. kept in urgent contact with the personnel attending the National Coal Convergence Conference and communicated with the mobile phone at any time. The purpose was to know at the first time how much the price of coal would go up. . He understands that the price of coal will rise, and coking coal will naturally rise. They are coking coal companies and their products are mainly supplied to steel companies. Coking coal prices, their products can only follow the price adjustment. However, whether or not the steel companies will accept such a price adjustment is not at all sure. 'Can we not worry? 'Yan, general manager of a look of helplessness.
The first deputy general manager of Shandong Lubei Enterprise Group Corporation, who participated in the coal linkage meeting, said that the 2×300,000-kilowatt cogeneration project with a total investment of 2.75 billion yuan is the largest ecological power generation project in China. Although the power plant urgently needs raw coal, the price of thermal coal will rise by more than 20 yuan per ton due to the temporary cancellation of coal prices by the government. This will in turn increase the cost for the enterprise, so this connection will be delayed. They were too late to sign a contract until January 10, when the meeting was over and they signed a 900,000-ton contract. This is a far cry from the amount of 1.5 million tons of coal they need each year. Even so, the contract price has not been finalized yet, and coal suppliers say that they will follow suit later. 'We have no room for bargaining! 'Sui Hongxuan said helplessly.
At this national coal production and distribution meeting, there have even been cases where chemical fertilizer companies purchase tens of millions of yuan to purchase 'index coal'. why? Because from the beginning of last year, the chemical fertilizer market has been fully warmed, and chemical market prices such as urea and ammonium nitrate have been climbing all the way up. This has led large companies to increase their production load and the use of coal has soared. The result of this move is that this year, small chemical fertilizers will face the reality of low or no coal.
The nation’s major coal production, transportation, demand, and convergence meetings have already been dispersed. Datang Group, Huaneng Group, Huadian Group and other power giants have finally achieved a relatively satisfactory result in the coal game due to their large size. However, chemical companies that are always in a passive position in the game with coal? Who are they desperate to solve for them? Many chemical fertilizer companies have reported that chemical industry is also an important user of coal. Why is there no right of the chemical industry to express opinions in this coal price increase process? Since it is an industrial chain, the negotiations should be multilateral, taking care of all aspects of interests as much as possible, so that the entire market will not be 'pulled up'.