International oil prices fell on July 31.

Some media reported that the average daily output of crude oil in OPEC member countries increased in July. Analysts said the news eased investor concerns about a shortage of supply in the crude oil market and put international oil prices under pressure.

As of the close of the day, the light crude oil futures for September delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell 1.37 US dollars to close at 68.76 US dollars per barrel, a decrease of 1.95%. London Brent crude oil futures for September delivery fell $0.72 to close at $74.25 a barrel, down 0.96%.

According to reports, a new polypropylene film manufacturing plant in Turkmenistan was put into production.

The plant is part of the Turkmen Bashi oil processing plant and costs 31.7 million euros to produce 21,000 tons of biaxially oriented polypropylene film per year.

The film products of this plant are made of TPP 382 BF type polypropylene produced by Turkmenistan oil processing plant, which meets international standards and is suitable for packaging materials for food and medicine.

On July 29, the rare earth index was 350 points, which was the same as yesterday. It was 65.00% lower than the highest point in the cycle (2011-12-06), which was 29.15% higher than the lowest point of 271 points on September 13, 2015. (Note: Cycle refers to 2011-12-01 to date)

The average price of metal lanthanum in rare earth metals is 41,250 yuan / ton; the average price of metal bismuth is 1.625 million yuan / ton; the average price of metal bismuth is 660,000 yuan / ton. The average price of niobium oxide in rare earth oxides is 327,500 yuan/ton; the average price of antimony oxide is 1.155 million yuan/ton; the average price of antimony oxide is 410,000 yuan/ton; the average price of antimony oxide is 320,000 yuan/ton. The average price of niobium alloy in rare earth alloy is 420,000 yuan/ton; the average price of niobium iron alloy is 1.17 million yuan/ton.

Recently, the domestic rare earth price trend is stable, most rare earth separation enterprises stop production, resulting in a decline in supply, especially some mainstream rare earth oxides, supply performance is tight, but the downstream receiving is not active, just as the rare earth industry sales off-season, domestic rare earth products prices fluctuate at low levels. Recently, the number of buyers has been reduced accordingly, and the transaction volume is very limited. The major manufacturers of products are also cautiously waiting to see each other. The mutual inquiry has become more frequent. The downstream receiving goods are not actively leading to the low price of some rare earth products. The division expects some products in the rare earth market to go down.

The concentration of Brazil’s agrochemical market in large transnational corporations is getting higher and higher. This will be worse than the “oligopoly”. Recently, Tulio Teixeira de Oliveira, executive president and agronomist of Brazilian Association of Nonproprietary Pesticides, made the above comment.

He said, “When the market is monopolized by a few competitors, we call this phenomenon an oligopoly. This monopoly has intensified, further limiting the room for growth of other competitors. This is one of the largest agrochemical markets in the world. What is going on in Brazil.”

From 2015 to 2017, the market value of the Brazilian agrochemical industry has been maintained at around US$9 billion, which also indicates that Brazil accounts for about 15% of the global market. Oliveira said, “In the past three years, the top nine companies in the market have owned 70% of Brazil’s agrochemical market share. This is already a considerable number, and it is likely to increase further.”

According to Oliveira, the market concentration will be greater next year because the number of companies with the largest market share will be reduced from 9 to 5. Dow and DuPont have already merged. Now Bayer will acquire Monsanto again. Syngenta and Andorma are independent, but they still represent China National Chemical Corporation. Companies with 70% market share will further focus on Bayer, Syngenta/Andorma, Corteva (Dow/DuPont), BASF, and Fumeishi.