보기: Market Movers Americas, Jan 31-Feb 4: Cold snaps pressure US gas inventories; nor'easter cools power demand

In this week's Market Movers: Cold snaps across the US weigh on natural gas inventories, Northeast power demand eases after a nor'easter hits the Atlantic Coast, the Winter Olympics in Beijing are set to offer relief to trans-Pacific container prices, and high-sulfur petcoke rates are likely to see support from rising global coal prices.

Starting with natural gas, US inventories are widely forecast to come under more pressure this week as recent frigid weather increases the call on storage. Already this month, US inventory levels have fallen by over 600 billion cubic feet, which recently put stocks at a deficit to the five-year average. S&P Global Platts Analytics projects that the largest withdrawal yet this season took place last week, at over 280 Bcf. This would balloon the US inventory deficit to nearly 160 Bcf below average. With US production weakness continuing, the massive drawdown promises to push down gas prices at Henry Hub this week.

Also impacted by freezing temperatures is power demand in the Northeast US. After a nor'easter slammed into the US Atlantic Coast over the weekend, temperatures are forecast to rise slightly this week, allowing power demand to ease. The New York and Boston highs are expected to rise to 47 and 38 degrees Fahrenheit on February 1, respectively, above their five-day temperature averages at 39 and 26 degrees. Following the milder temperatures, New York's Independent System Operator expects peakload demand to dip to around 20 and 19.5 gigawatts on February 1 and 2, from a high of 21.51 gigawatts on January 31. The New England ISO forecast peakload demand to fall to 18 gigawatts on February 1 and 16 gigawatts on February 3.

In the trans-Pacific freight market, container freight all-inclusive premium rates are set to decline during the Lunar New Year and Beijing Olympics in February. Offers for late February and March loading on trans-Pacific sailings have come in well below current booking rates, as ocean carriers expect a short-term slump in demand, with many factories in China shut down for the period. Offers were heard at 12,000 dollars per forty-foot equivalent unit for bookings from Shanghai to the US Pacific Coast, while cargoes routed to the US Atlantic Coast were around the 13,000 dollars per FEU level. Market participants expect demand to rebound later in the first and second quarters, supporting rates.

Finally, bullishness is expected in the US Gulf Coast high-sulfur petcoke market amid rising global coal prices and political tension. Current FOB NOLA coal prices above 120 dollars per metric ton and FOB USGC high-sulfur petcoke prices below 120 dollars per metric ton make coal-to-petcoke switching more likely in export markets like India. In contrast to high sulfur, the low sulfur West Coast petcoke market is expected to be quiet for the next several weeks as buyers await a new 2% sulfur tender in mid-February.

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