Cash premiums for fuel oil fell on Monday amid thin trade, while spot offers inched lower from their previous session.
The cash premium for 0.5% low sulphur fuel oil dipped to $9.85 a tonne to Singapore quotes, while front-month margin held steady at a premium of $10.70 a barrel at 0830 GMT.
Meanwhile, 380-cst high sulphur fuel oil margin fell to a discount of $7.45 a barrel after hitting a year’s high last week, while its cash premium was little changed at $5 a tonne.
Chinese demand for high-sulphur fuel oil blends have trended steady to higher in the year so far, though there were signs of slowing down in May as discounts to crude narrowed, some trade sources said.
China’s April fuel oil imports had surged further from the prior month, holding at a decade-high, latest General Administration of Customs data showed.
Total fuel oil imports last month jumped almost three times from a year earlier to 2.67 million tonnes, a level not seen since May 2013.
OTHER NEWS
– Oil prices slipped on Monday as caution around U.S. debt ceiling talks and concerns about demand recovery in China offset support from lower supplies from Canada and OPEC+ producers.
– Demand for oil is set to pick up in the second half of the year, with as much as 2 million barrels per day (bpd) more needed led by Asian growth, said a top executive at Vitol.
– Bangladesh is struggling to pay for imported fuel because of a dollar shortage, letters reviewed by Reuters show, with the state petroleum company owing more than $300 million as it faces an “alarming decrease in fuel reserves”.
– A shipment of U.S. oil is headed to South Africa for the first time in two years and destined for a Glencore-owned refinery in Cape Town that has restarted operations after an explosion shuttered it in 2020, according to ship tracking data and a source.
WINDOW TRADES
– 180-cst HSFO: No trade
– 380-cst HSFO: No trade
– 0.5% VLSFO: No trade
Source: Hellenic Shipping News
