On an Aug. 23 conference call Zhongji Xuchuang said material supply is tight due to faster-than-expected downstream demand and slower upstream capacity expansion. Some input costs have risen, but price increases for the company’s high-volume products were limited because contracts are largely locked and order volumes confer pricing advantage. The company said product price declines on upcoming customer deliveries will be moderate, not the sharp drops cited in market rumors. It expects to control

WTI crude down 1.0% intraday at $85.44/bbl.

Iranian parliament speaker Ghalibaf posted on X a graphic linking sanctions and energy-market shifts to damage to the U.S. economy and mocked recent U.S. measures to control domestic prices. He ridiculed steps such as importing frozen meat to cap food prices and asked rhetorically whether the U.S. plans to import "frozen yields" for bonds, introduce "frozen buyers" for housing or issue "frozen payrolls" to fix wages, warning a rigid, uncreative foreign policy will send the "boomerang" of devastating economic pressure back to the U.S.