Weekly Bitumen Report: 2023 Ended with a Heavy Recession in the Bitumen Market
During the last week, the missile attacks of Houthi on commercial ships continued and naval warships of different countries were sent to the Red Sea to guarantee the security of this region. In the meantime, tension among other countries in the Middle East rose too.
The mortality rate in Qaza reached over 20K people and it seems there is no sign of a ceasefire from the two sides.
On December 27, gold price reached its highest rate in the last 20 years and it was recorded at 2,086 USD per ounce. During the last week, although it was expected not to see any further surge of crude oil from 79 USD, it increased up to 81 USD on Wednesday. However, it reached 79 USD once again as a result of various economic factors.
Leon Lee, the analyst of CMC Market, believes that the current prices of crude oil increased as a result of expectations for a fall in interest rates and tension of the Red Sea. Although Maersk’s announcement about the restart of its services reduced the worries, Goldman Sachs states that in case of the closure of the Red Sea marine route in the long term, crude oil prices might increase 3, to 4 USD in the long term.
On December 27, Singapore’s HSFO CST180 reached 454 USD with a 10-dollar increase. Singapore’s bitumen price closed at 460 USD and increased by 5 USD.
Bulk bitumen of South Korea settled at 380 USD and it raised 5 USD, as well.
Bitumen price in Europe was somehow empowered and Bahrain’s bitumen price remained stable at 400 USD.
India will start the new year with a 14.5 USD drop in bitumen price but they are hopeful to have more demand from Iran in the second half of January 2024.
By sending frequent notices of the shipping lines in Jebel Ali, shipping costs of some destinations increased drastically and the suppliers and exporters faced a more difficult situation in Iran.
In the meanwhile, there was no competition for vacuum bottoms among the refineries considering the stable exchange rate and ambiguous situation of the shipping lines, hence, Iran’s export of bitumen ended with a severe recession in 2023.
Infinity Galaxy team wishes everyone a Happy New Year replete with peace, prosperity, and blessing and thanks every single reader who accompanied us with our weekly bitumen report for one more year.
This article was prepared by Razieh Gilani, the export manager of Infinity Galaxy.
