Asia Fuel Oil-Market weaker; stocks high on lull demand

Asian fuel oil market slipped into weakness, with the cash premium on the 180-cst fuel oil grade down to a near two-week low, as onshore stocks built on the back of lull demand.

The 180-cst cash premium stood at $2.42 a tonne to Singapore spot quotes, down 36 cents a tonne, Reuters data showed.

“The current bunker demand cannot support the market well at the moment,” said an Asia based trader.

Official data on Singapore’s marine fuel sales for May is expected to be released on Friday.

Traders said sales in May would likely not match up to that in April, which hit its highest level since May 2012.

Compounding the market’s weakness, Singapore onshore fuel oil stocks climbed 619,000 barrels (97,480 tonnes) to a two-week high of 21.679 million barrels (3.414 million tonnes) in the week to June 11, data from trade agency IE Singapore showed on Thursday.

Exports were up more than 70 percent, lifted by more shipments to China, which increased by
more than ten times from last week, the data showed.

Imports rose marginally by 2.5 percent from last week. Shipments from Russia more than
halved while imports from the Netherlands hit a five-week high.

*CASH TRADES – Three 380-cst deals.
PetroChina bought from Hin Leong two 20,000-tonne cargoes for June 27-July 1 loading, one at $604 a tonne and the other at $604.50 a tonne.

PetroChina bought from Unipec 30,000 tonnes for July 1-5 at a premium of $1.50 a tonne to Singapore spot quotes.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Jane Xie; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)