Market digests Saudi price reduction

摘要

The failure to lure Chinese buyers back into the market resulted in Aramco Trading dropping its September lifting price to$159/t fob Jubail,down from the August price of $170/t fob.This new price equates closer to$180/t cfr for the China market and is designed to bring back important Chinese end-users back into the market.So far this is not apparent,with end-users now dropping price ideas down to low-mid$170s/t cfr.With August costs of$170/t fob and Sept now at$159/t fob,allocation holders are holding off these loss-making counters,and are prepared to wait for end-users to come back into the market and engage with suppliers,especially in view of the strong phosphate market (see Argus Phosphates assessment which follows).