보기: Market Movers Asia, March 21-25: China's COVID-19 curbs hit oil, gas, coal demand

This week: All eyes will be on Chinese oil companies' business strategies for 2022, China's nickel buyers are holding off their purchases amid price volatility, and Asian consumers are likely to turn to Australian and Indian wheat amid absent Black Sea supplies.

But first, tight movement restrictions and regional lockdowns in China to control the largest COVID-19 outbreak are expected to impact oil and gas demand in the coming weeks. Restrictions have been imposed across nearly 20 provinces and municipalities, and daily confirmed cases have been over 2500 for many consecutive days.

The areas of Guangdong, Shandong, Jilin and Shanghai—some of epicenters of the current COVID-19 outbreak -- accounted for around 30% of China's oil consumption in 2021. According to S&P Global Commodity Insights' estimates, China is expected to see oil demand destruction to the tune of 650,000 barrels a day in March and 400,000 barrels a day in April. The restrictions could also impact product exports in April.

Market sources estimate that total trucked LNG sales are also likely to drop by at least 15%. Trucked LNG loading schedules have slowed at several terminals in northern and southern China in the first half of March. LNG terminals have been enforcing testing requirements for drivers, hitting transportation between cities.

There are expectations that Beijing may adjust its zero COVID-19 approach to ensure that it meets its 2022 GDP growth target. President Xi Jinping has pushed for "swift containment" of the pandemic but at a minimum cost. That brings us to our social media question for the week: Will China's COVID-19 outbreak dampen the sentiment and weaken oil prices to below $100/b? Share your thoughts on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Staying with China, all eyes will be on the 2021 annual results and subsequent conference calls of China's listed oil companies. The energy industry will see if state-owned companies show interest in acquiring Russian energy assets. This comes at a time many US and European firms are exiting their Russian energy investments due to the country's invasion of Ukraine.

The oil companies' business strategies, upstream and refining production targets for 2022 will also be in focus.

In metals, Chinese downstream nickel consumers are awaiting pricing cues as they held back procurements amid volatile prices. Global nickel prices are expected to remain volatile in the near term due to the Russia-Ukraine war and the uncertainty around nickel trading on the London Metal Exchange.

LME's resumption on nickel trading was off to a rough start last week due to errors that allowed a small number of trades below the daily price limit on its LMEselect electronic market. LME has since widened the daily upper and lower price limits for nickel trading to 8% from 5%.

In the Asian thermal coal market, Indonesian thermal coal prices are likely to remain volatile this week as Chinese demand remains low amid lockdowns. However, supply tightness in Indonesia due to heavy rains and barge unavailability could continue to support export prices. Buyers in India are expected to remain on the sidelines due to high import prices and may choose to procure domestic stocks from ports.

And finally, in agriculture, grain markets will be closely watching the movement of Australian prime wheat prices, which rose to an all-time high of 447 dollars per metric ton on March 8 but have since declined over the last 2 weeks. A fall in prices may provide some relief to global wheat importers, particularly the Asian countries, as supplies from the Black Sea region remain disrupted. Australia and India are expected to fill the gap from absent Black Sea supplies.

Thanks for kicking off your Monday with us. Have a great week ahead!