At the midday close, China’s main futures contracts were mixed. Container
shipping rates on the Europe route fell nearly 7%. Caustic soda dropped over 4%.
Palm oil and platinum were down more than 3%; Soybean No.2 fell nearly 3%.
Soybean oil, cotton and palladium declined over 2%. On the upside, LPG rose over
4%; asphalt and lithium carbonate were up nearly 4%. Polypropylene (monthly
average), polypropylene, propylene and methanol gained more than 3%, and fuel
oil rose nearly 3%.