Weekly Bitumen Report: Hope for a Promising Business Year

In the first week of January 2024, the largest prisoner swap took place between Ukraine and Russia while approaching the third year of this war. At the same time, the heaviest missile attacks were observed by both parties.

Hamas- Israel war is passing its third month and Houthi attacks continue, even the USA coalition did not lead to the opening of the Red Sea route.

In the meantime, the calculations of Reuters and data from some other predictive institutes show that OPEC will face a demand reduction for oil purchases in the first half of 2024. Hence, the export proportion of OPEC members in the global markets of 2024 will reach its lowest level after COVID time as a result of a reduction in production and Angula's withdrawal from OPEC. In the meanwhile, on January 3, the deputy prime minister of Russia announced that half of Russia’s crude oil was exported to China in 2023.

On Wednesday, January 3, oil prices increased in the initial meetings of 2024 due to the possibility of disruption in the oil supply of the Middle East after the rise of unrest in the Red Sea, hopes for the increase of demand, and the release of data about China’s economic drivers. Yet, on January 4, a little drop in crude oil prices was observed.

Singapore’s HSFO CST180 reached 441 USD on January 4, and the bitumen price of Singapore closed at 450 USD with a fall of 5 dollars.

South Korea recorded a drop of 5 dollars in its bitumen price and settled at 375 USD.

In the ending week of 2023, bitumen prices in Europe remained almost stable and Bahrain’s bitumen was traded at 400 USD.

Bitumen price in India fell 20 USD on the first day of 2024 but all the market players hope for a more promising situation in January 2024.

In Iran, the prices did not show any significant changes compared to last week's market, although a small growth in the level of VB competition was observed among the refineries.

Hope for better days for this industry is seen in the new year after a long period of recession, and it seems that buyers in some markets have decided to close their deals after the end of the holidays.

Infinity Galaxy company wishes a blessed business year and serves its valued customers as supportive as in previous years. This article was prepared by Razieh Gilani, the export manager of Infinity Galaxy.