Data show that in January this year, the production of 2A petroleum coke accounted for 3%, 2B petroleum coke production accounted for 8%, 3A petroleum coke production accounted for 14%, and petroleum coke production with a sulfur content of less than 2.0% occupied 25% of the total output of the refinery. Petroleum coke production with a sulfur content of 2.0-3.0% accounts for 35% of the total refinery output. Petroleum coke production with sulfur content above 3.0% accounts for 38% of total refinery output. In addition, the production of shot coke occupies 1% of the total output of the mill.

However, by June, the index of petroleum coke refining in the ground deteriorated significantly, and the petroleum coke production with a sulfur content of less than 2.0% accounted for 13% of the total output of the refinery, which was 12 percentage points lower than that in January. Petroleum coke production with a sulfur content of 2.0-3.0% accounted for 24% of total refinery output, down 11 percentage points from January. Petroleum coke production with a sulfur content of more than 3.0% accounted for 57% of the total refinery output, an increase of 19 percentage points from January. In addition, the production of projectile coke occupies 4% of the total output of the refinery, which is 3 percentage points less than in January.

It can be clearly seen that since the first half of the year, the production of low-sulfur petroleum coke has clearly decreased, and the production of high-sulfur petroleum coke and shot coke has increased significantly. However, petroleum coke is a by-product of refining and chemical enterprises, and the change of petroleum coke index stems from the change of crude oil in refinery.

Affected by the sanctions imposed by the European Union on Russia, the distribution structure of China's crude oil source began to change in the second quarter. Since May, Russia has been China's top source of crude oil imports.

According to customs data, China's crude oil imports in June 2022 were 36.3402 million tons, down 10.054 million tons from the previous month, down 21.83% from the previous month and down 19.2% from the same period last year. In June, Russian crude oil imports were 7.285,900 tons, accounting for 20.34% in the month, up 9.43% from last year. Affected by the situation between Russia and Ukraine, European sanctions on Russia have been escalating, and China's preferential price policy for importing crude oil from Russia has been considerable. The amount of crude oil sold to China by the United Kingdom, the United States, the Middle East and other countries has clearly decreased, while the amount of Russian crude oil sold to China has increased.

Since the war between Russia and Ukraine, global crude oil prices have remained high, once maintaining a price of more than $100 / barrel, but domestic fuel and gasoline demand is not strong, refineries are under great cost pressure, and there are not a few refineries in a state of loss. Therefore, more cost-effective crude oil has become the primary choice for refining. As a result, the distribution structure of the source of China's imported crude oil has changed greatly, which leads to the deterioration of the petroleum coke index.

It is expected that the current situation of refining petroleum coke tends to be high sulfur and high micro-quantification is difficult to reverse temporarily, so for the downstream petroleum coke industry, especially for aluminum carbon, the increasingly difficult situation of raw material procurement will be difficult to improve in the short term.