Asia’s spot fuel oil market continued to firm on Thursday, while residual fuel stocks at Singapore fell to a five-week low.

The 0.5% very low sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO) market extended gains for an eighth trading session to a spot premium of $17.89 a tonne to Singapore quotes.

The 380-cst high sulphur fuel oil (HSFO) market rose to a spot premium of $4.50 a tonne, after a firmer trade emerged.

TENDER UPDATES

The refinery is offering three 100,000-tonne cargoes of 0.5% LSFO in a tender that closes later Thursday.

The first cargo is scheduled to load between Feb. 1 and Feb. 2, while loading dates for the second and third cargoes are to be scheduled later for March and April.

SINGAPORE INVENTORIES

The fall in inventories came amid a decline in weekly net imports, which slumped by 14% to 615,000 tonnes in the same week.

The biggest net fuel oil import volumes into Singapore were from Brazil in the week ended Jan. 18, surpassing Malaysia’s which were at 91,000 tonnes. This was followed by Algeria at 88,000 tonnes.

Source: Hellenic Shipping News