Weekly Bitumen Report: Fears and Hopes of the Market

The world is struggling with the latest variant of COVID-19, Omicron. It has affected lifestyles, businesses, economies, etc. The commodity market is not an exception as well. There is not any clear estimation of the market trend.

Currently, lockdowns have been reapplied in some European countries. Implementation of lockdowns in more regions can be expected. The major difference between these lockdowns with previous ones can be the discovery of vaccines.

The army of the USA is about to discover a new type of vaccine with protection against all the variants of the COVID-19. Oil prices recovered accordingly as a result of positive signs of vaccinations.

If the situation gets stable in India and China, the market will jump to higher rates. Up to 6 a.m. Dec. 23, 236 cases of Omicron had been reported in India.

Iraqi refineries have brought a considerable quantity to Bandar Abbas and Iranian refineries are frequently competing to avoid fall of rates. The range of following week competition varied from 7-26%. Check the latest bitumen price.

It is heard that Indian refineries will decrease bitumen price by around 40 US dollars by 1st January 2022. However, hardly any buyer has canceled their orders. This means the current rates of the market are still attractive to the buyers.

On 22 Dec. 2021, Iran IME decreased vacuum bottom prices up to 2.35% which is very insignificant compared to the weekly competitions of the refineries. It shows that sellers and buyers do not still believe in the fall of rates.

Based on the latest reports, a new wave of GRI will be applied by the shipping lines from 2 Jan 2022. Although it was said that the Adani terminal has settled the issue of cargo import from Iranian ports, it is still unsolved and the shipping lines release bookings hesitantly. Bookings are subject to change destination.

Presently, there is hesitation in the market: in one hand, fall of rates for Omicron pressure and instability of the market, on the other hand, a surge of rates due to current dynamic demand and hopes to control Omicron through vaccination. However, based on the last two-year experience of COVID-19, rates might touch a bottom and subsequently, significant growth takes place.

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

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