The refinery cut the price to boost sales as inventory was expected to become ampler when PetroChina's internal demand for high-viscosity resources stepped down, he said. Moreover, PetroChina Daqing Refining & Chemical Co and PetroChina Fushun Petrochemical had sold some mid-high-viscosity resources at Yuan 200-300/mt lower than Dalian Petrochemical's offer, which attracted some local end-users, the refinery source said. This had depressed its sales of 400SN resources, he added.
However, after the markdown, sales warmed up, especially from consumers in East and South China, where Group I resources were in limited supplies, C1's survey found. Downstream lubricant plants in these two regions were active in hoarding inventories. A source from a large lubricant plant told C1 it had not received any high-viscosity grades for one month, but would replenish stocks this time.
Meanwhile, PetroChina had no plan for price reduction in all its refineries so far, said a source from the marketing company of the oil oligarch.
Dalian Petrochemical last adjusted down its base oils prices by Yuan 200/mt in late August. The adjusted prices were still Yuan 200-300/mt higher than the prices in other refineries subsidiary to PetroChina.
China Chemical Weekly: http://news.chemnet.com/en/detail-1411716.html
