The Chinese bought a lot of pt and pd in 2020, a sudden drop could only mean one thing. They are liquidating their physical stock for $$. Selling pm for American fiat.
The price of raw materials have been going up, and customers will run if you raise the price of your finished products, so manufacturers have to absorb the difference, and they would also need more dollars to buy the raw material. Commodities inflation hits B2B the worst.