In International Shipping News 22/09/2016
Asia’s fuel oil markets weakened on Thursday after official data showed a large stock build of onshore Singapore fuel oil.
Fuel oil stocks held by up to 13 major oil and oil storage companies in Singapore jumped 2.749 million barrels (just over 410,000 tonnes) to a six-week high of 24.33 million barrels (about 3.6 million tonnes) in the week to Sept. 21, according to data from International Enterprise (IE) Singapore on Thursday.
Last week’s inventory build was the largest weekly increase of onshore stocks in 18 weeks, the IE figures showed.
In the paper markets, the front month East-West spreads between Singapore 380-cst fuel oil and Rotterdam 3.5 percent sulphur barges, 380-cst cracks to Brent crude as well as the 380-cst front-month time spreads were all lower on the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), industry sources said.
In the physical markets, cash premiums of the benchmark 180-cst fuel oil and the 380-cst fuel both edged lower despite sellers maintaining elevated price levels for their cargoes.
“The bids (for physical cargoes) got softer after the inventory data but offers were still strong,” said a Singapore-based trader.
Cash premiums of the 180-cst fuel FO180-SIN-DIF were 5 cents lower on Thursday at $1.96 a tonne to Singapore quotes, while premiums of the 380-cst fuel oil FO380-SIN-DIF slipped 19 cents to 50 cents a tonne to Singapore quotes.
IMPORTS & EXPORTS:
Fuel oil imports into Singapore totalled 1.44 million tonnes, while total exports amounted to 377,000 tonnes, the IE figures showed.
Russia, the U.S., the United Arab Emirates and Thailand, were the top four importers of fuel oil into Singapore last week accounting for 72 percent of the total, or 1.03 million tonnes.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong, New Caledonia, China and Bangladesh were the largest export destinations of Singapore fuel oil, taking in a combined 242,000 tonnes of fuel, or 64 percent of the total.
TENDERS:
– Sri Lanka’s Ceypetco bought 25,000 tonnes of 180-cst low-sulphur fuel oil (LSFO) with a maximum 1.8 percent sulphur content from Glencore for delivery between Oct. 12-13 at the Muthurajawela tank farm, industry sources said.
The cargo was bought at a premium range between $40 and $50 a tonne to 180-cst Singapore quotes on a delivered ex ship (DES) basis.
– Pakistan State Oil is seeking up to 1.735 million tonnes of high-sulphur fuel oil (HSFO) and LSFO for delivery through 27 cargoes, tender documents on the company’s website showed.
Source: Reuters
