The situation in Eastern-Europe didn’t’ change much during December. The focus seems to be on the volumes committed to deliveries before Christmas, the interest for bookings for January onwards seems to be rather low at the moment. It remains to be seen if the prices of raw material will finally adapt to the weaker export demand, or will carry on their firm path into 2021. The interest for Californian product seems to be much stronger at the moment, based on record shipment figures from California for the month of November. Both shelled (+10%) as inshell (+12%) shipped are well ahead compared to the same period last year. Despite these high figures is everyone well aware of the bumper crop, of which already 760 MT has been physically received. If we compare the increased shipment figures with the increased crop, is California still behind last year percentage wise. If we zoom into the export figures of November, we see that the exports to Europe are not in line with the global trend, as both shelled (-22%) as in-shell (-40%) shipments are down compared to November last year. The already firming spot market is not supported by these figures, especially since the physical arrival of containers is less certain then we’re used to as well.
