The U.S. Treasury Department added a new round of sanctions on Venezuela on December 12, blacklisting four foreign shipping companies and nine oil tankers that transported crude oil to Venezuela, further exerting pressure on the Venezuelan government.

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced sanctions on 3 Liberian shipping companies, 1 Italian company and 9 oil tankers under these companies on December 12, designating them as exporting Venezuelan crude oil to Cuba.

The United States will freeze the assets of these four companies in the United States and prohibit American citizens from doing business with them.

In a statement, the U.S. Treasury Department said that crude oil export revenue remains “the lifeline of the Nicolas Maduro regime”, and the United States will continue to sanction enterprises that help Venezuelan government export crude oil.

The last round of U.S. sanctions mainly targeted Venezuelan oil companies, 34 oil tankers owned by the state-owned enterprise and two foreign companies that transported Venezuelan crude oil to Cuba.

At the end of January, the United States announced sanctions against Venezuelan Petroleum Corporation, freezing its assets in the United States and withholding the proceeds of its crude oil exports to the United States.

According to the United States, Cuba is the main importer of Venezuelan crude oil; in exchange, Cuba sent political advisers, intelligence personnel, military officers and medical experts to Venezuela.

Cuba has previously stated that no matter how the United States sanctions Venezuela, Cuba will not abandon its allies.

People’s livelihood-stricken Associated Press reported that the United States recently imposed several rounds of sanctions on Venezuela’s oil and financial fields, involving more than 150 people and entities, and revoked 718 “trusted” visas to the United States from Venezuelan government leaders.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is visiting four Latin American countries, said Tuesday that the US side will continue to pressure the Maduro government with sanctions and diplomacy and “will not withdraw from this fight”.

Critics say the Venezuelan people suffer from inflation and shortage of goods, and the US sanctions will only aggravate their suffering and will not help resolve the crisis.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Maria Zaharova said on November 11 that the illegal unilateral sanctions imposed by the United States have caused Venezuela more than $110 billion in losses. Instead of forcing a limited amount of humanitarian assistance to Venezuela, it is better to lift the sanctions.

Juan Guaido, Venezuela’s opposition leader and parliamentary chairman, announced on January 23 that he was acting as “interim president” and was recognized by the United States and other European and Latin American countries. The United States has been stepping up sanctions against Venezuela in recent years in an attempt to force Maduro to step down.

The Venezuelan government has not responded to the latest U.S. sanctions for the time being. It had previously condemned the sanctions imposed by the United States as “unilateral, arbitrary, coercive and illegal”, saying that Venezuela continued to firmly safeguard its political, economic and cultural independence and that no action by the United States would yield Venezuelan people.

On April 14, the ammonium nitrate commodity index was 107.02, which was the same as yesterday. It was 9.63% lower than the cyclical peak of 118.42 points (2019-01-15), and 38.32% higher than the lowest point of 77.37 on October 31, 2016. (Note: Period refers to 2013-02-01 to date)

Recently, the price trend of domestic ammonium nitrate Market has maintained a low level. Affected by environmental protection control, domestic ammonium nitrate plants shut down more, and domestic ammonium nitrate plants started less. However, with the warming of the weather recently, the influence of northern air limitation disappeared. In addition, due to the complete shutdown of domestic downstream civil explosion industry, domestic ammonium nitrate manufacturers have more stockpiles and the price trend in the field has declined. As of the 15th day, the domestic ammonium nitrate market price talks in 1900-2100 yuan/ton, affected by environmental protection, so now many manufacturers in many areas have been forced to limit production or stop production and maintenance to accept environmental protection inspection, the price trend of ammonium nitrate in the field is weak.

Recently, the domestic nitric acid price trend is temporarily stable, up to 15 days, the market price is 1560 yuan/ton. The stable trend of nitric acid price has little effect on the ammonium nitrate market, and the price trend of ammonium nitrate has slightly declined. The price trend of upstream raw material liquid ammonia is temporarily stable, up to 15 days, the market price of liquid ammonia is 3416 yuan/ton. The temporary stable trend of upstream raw material price brings certain support to the ammonium nitrate market. Market price trend is stable for the time being. At the end of the peak season of the downstream civil explosion industry recently, the demand for ammonium nitrate has weakened and the stocks of ammonium nitrate manufacturers have increased, but the liquid ammonia market is on the rise again. The ammonium nitrate Market has slightly declined due to the bad market. Ammonium nitrate analysts believe that the recent upstream raw material market price shocks, but the downstream demand is not good, ammonium nitrate market prices are expected to maintain shocks in the later period.

NEW YORK, April 12, 2007 – COMEX copper closed higher on Friday, driven by the weakening U.S. dollar and the year-on-year increase in China’s copper imports in March.

The most active May copper contract closed up 5.9 cents at $2.9460 per pound.

The dollar index fell, signs of China’s economic stability and the strong start of the US corporate earnings season boosted demand for risky assets, making the dollar the worst weekly performance against the euro in four weeks.

Data released by the General Administration of Customs on Friday showed that China’s exports rebounded in March, but imports shrank for the fourth consecutive month and the pace accelerated, reflecting a mixed economic situation as the Sino-US trade negotiations approached a general conclusion.

According to the General Administration of Customs, China imported 391,000 tons of unwrought rolled copper and copper in March, an increase of 26.1% annually compared with the same period last year, and a decrease of 9.1% compared with 430,000 tons in the same period last year.

In the first quarter of this year, China imported 1,180,000 tons of unwrought rolled copper and copper, down 4.3%.

China imported 1,767,000 tons of copper concentrate in March, down 8.0% compared with the previous year, and increased by 10.4%.

On April 9, after the revelry of the previous trading day, chemical sector shares fell in tandem. Among them, the main 1905 contract of methanol futures fell 0.88% on the whole day, closing at 2491 yuan/ton. Since March 29, the main 1905 contract of methanol futures has risen by 4.53%. Industry insiders believe that the domestic methanol plant centralized into the spring inspection, the center of gravity of superimposed crude oil has recently significantly increased, which helps to boost methanol prices.

Methanol port stocks have recently fallen from their high levels. As of April 4, methanol stocks in domestic ports were around 959.3 million tons, down 25.1 million tons from March 28, down 2.55%.

Analysts pointed out that in April each year, domestic methanol plants centralized into the spring inspection, the market supply is tightening. At the same time, the United States, Southeast Asia and other places have also been overhauled, the global supply of methanol will steadily decline. The production profits of downstream methanol enterprises have been repaired recently. In addition, with the arrival of the peak consumption season, the purchasing of enterprises has shown a more obvious warming up. Due to the warming up of downstream consumption in formaldehyde production enterprises, the start-up load is likely to rise further, and the consumption of methanol will increase.

Analysts said that from the crude oil point of view, due to Saudi Arabia led OPEC oil producers’initiative to reduce production more than expected, coupled with the slowdown in the growth of U.S. production, the recent strong rally in the crude oil market. Since April, the focus of crude oil futures prices at home and abroad has obviously moved up. Overall, the global market is still in a tight supply situation in the second quarter. With the improvement of the macro atmosphere, the focus of crude oil prices will rise further. Although domestic methanol does not use crude oil as raw material, coal-based process is the main method, while foreign methanol is also the main method. A sharp rise in crude oil prices will help to raise the prices of coal and natural gas, which will help methanol prices rise simultaneously.

With the end of heating season in the north, the domestic natural gas market has entered the traditional off-season of consumption, but the figure of foreign capital in the market is more active, liquefied natural gas has become the focus of attention and competition of many foreign-funded enterprises.

Relevant leaders of Shanghai Petroleum and Natural Gas Trading Center told reporters at the 19th International Liquefied Natural Gas Conference held here that the number of international energy enterprises visiting the trading center this year increased significantly compared with the same period last year. The cooperation between foreign-funded enterprises and Chinese enterprises has expanded from several major state-owned oil and gas companies to domestic private enterprises, and the content of cooperation has also changed from simple resources trade to production. The downstream extension of the industry chain.

Reporters learned from the conference site that on the one hand, many foreign-funded enterprises hope to have a deeper understanding of China’s oil and gas market reform policy and the process of opening up; on the other hand, they are actively looking for a platform to connect the upstream and downstream of the market, and to reach a wider range of private, small and medium-sized gas enterprises in China.

Saad Sherida Alkabi, Minister of Energy Affairs of the State of Qatar, said that China was one of the central markets for increasing global demand for liquefied natural gas, and Qatar hoped to have more cooperation with China in the future. Qatar has been upgrading its liquefied natural gas production capacity to meet the needs of the future market.

Data show that in 2018, China’s apparent consumption of natural gas exceeded 280 billion cubic meters, becoming the world’s largest importer of natural gas and the second largest importer of liquefied natural gas. The import of liquefied natural gas exceeded 53 million tons, accounting for 60% of the total import of natural gas.

“Liquefied natural gas has gradually become one of the most active forms of natural gas supply by virtue of its advantages of convenient transportation, flexibility, safety and efficiency.” Yang Hua, chairman of China Ocean Oil Group Co., Ltd., said.

Among the major liquefied natural gas enterprises in China, China offshore oil imported 26.42 million tons of liquefied natural gas in 2018, and PetroChina imported more than 15 million tons of liquefied natural gas in the same period.

At present, Hanas Group, a private enterprise, has set up a liquefied natural gas purchasing and trading company in Singapore. “We cooperate with major LNG suppliers around the world. In the past, cooperation with foreign-funded enterprises was mostly in the field of liquefied natural gas procurement. Now we are also developing overseas LNG supply markets, focusing on Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Christopher Marley, general manager of Hanas Liquefied Natural Gas (Singapore) Co., Ltd.

In addition, the company recently signed a 10-year long-term purchase and sale agreement with Guanghui International Natural Gas Trading Co., Ltd. to supply 700,000 tons of liquefied natural gas annually. Laurent Ville, Senior Vice President of Daudal Natural Gas Business, said Guanghui International Natural Gas Co., Ltd. is developing strongly in the Chinese market, and the new supply contract will further enhance Daudal’s influence in the Chinese market.

Tony Yatt, chief executive of Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Corporation, said that Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Company had not directly engaged in business with China at present, and many products were transferred to the Chinese market through buyers. Faced with the fast-growing market, Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Corporation is looking for opportunities to directly connect with the Chinese market.

At present, China’s natural gas market is in an important stage of market-oriented reform. In the view of the industry, in the future, the natural gas transportation pipeline network, gas storage and liquefied natural gas receiving station and other infrastructure will gradually be fair and open to the market, and the market pricing mechanism of all sectors of the natural gas industry will continue to improve.

Industry insiders expect that China will gradually form a unified and multi-level new pattern of natural gas market, interact closely with the international market, and expand the breadth and depth of international energy cooperation.