Weekly Bitumen Report: The Renewed Growth of the Market after the Recent Shocks

After 232 days of the war in Ukraine, it seems that the atomic threats of Russia have found a new shape and now the analysts of the main organizations and even the White House are worried about these threats.

On the other hand, after the 2-million cut of OPEC, the oil price increased by 98 US dollars but it started to fall gradually and at the time of preparing this report, it reached 92 US dollars.

Singapore fuel experienced an overall fall of 15 US dollars on Tuesday and Wednesday, although it had seen a growth of up to 37 US dollars in the previous days.

In such a decision made by OPEC, we can say that the political factors have stronger effects than the economic ones. The analysts believe that the hidden reason for this decision that is supported by Russia and Saudi Arabia was to harm the US election that will be held on 8 November. On the other side, the USA is also attempting to compensate for the shortage of OPEC oil supply using different methods.

Besides, based on the published reports about China’s economic situation and after its Zero Corona plans, there cannot be any promising future for China that will lead to more economic worries in the world.  

Also, after 8 rounds of nuclear negotiations between Iran and the West, there is not any clear outcome yet, and seems to be endless for the time being. This matter has somehow changed the US dollar equity, Iran Rial.

During the last week, Iran’s vacuum bottom competed for 30-50% among the refineries as they were expecting the surge of crude oil price to more than 100 US dollars. As a result, Iran packed bitumen prices increased to more than 420 US dollars FOB Bandar Abbas. However, Singapore’s bitumen price was unchanged in the range of 555-560 US dollars and South Korea’s bitumen was almost fixed in the range of 490-500 US dollars.

Bitumen price in India is expected to increase by around 15 US dollars by 15 October while it was previously expected to drop by around 15 US dollars and it can be a positive stimulant in the market.

However, it seems that the current fluctuations of oil price shall be still traced and maybe we cannot expect to see another oil shock like what we observed on 5 October which can be a green light for market formation after frequent ups and downs during the last months.

This article was prepared by Razieh Gilani, the export manager of Infinity Galaxy (www.infinitygalaxy.org).