Weekly Bitumen Report: Iran Uptrend of Bitumen Prices and its Fall in Europe

On November 27, the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah started at 4 A.M. local time. However, Israel’s army informed the residents of Southern Lebanon not to return to their homes for the time being. It is still not clear whether Israel has any ceasefire plan with Hamas or not.

Simultaneously, within the last week, Donald Trump threatened to apply heavy tariffs on imported goods. He pointed out that the applicable tariffs might be 10% and 25% for the goods imported from China, Canada, and Mexico, respectively. These threats raised concerns in the global markets.

Besides, the market is anticipating the upcoming meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) in December to see if the Federal Reserve will continue the policy of the increase in interest rate or will decide to stop or decrease it.

Despite the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah and positive feedback from the market to this agreement, crude oil prices did not decline because of reports about OPEC’s decision to postpone the gradual increase of the proportions. Hence, crude oil prices remained in the range of $70-75. In the meantime, at the London Energy Intelligence Forum, the BP chairman stated that crude oil demands still make them surprised.

On November 28, crude oil was around $72. Singapore’s 180CST closed at $456.

Bitumen prices in Singapore and South Korea were reported at $435 and $415, respectively.

In Bahrain, the bitumen price is still stable at the level of $395.

The range of bitumen prices in Europe dropped to $395-430.

Considering the changes in Indian rupee equity against the US dollar, bitumen prices in India will probably experience a slight surge or no changes in bitumen prices on December 1.

In Iran, the shortage of vacuum bottom has not only led to long delays in goods delivery but also maintained the uptrend of prices and the exporters face serious issues. Still, there are no promising results on the internal negotiations of the refineries and the current situation is expected to continue at least for the next month.

To check the latest bitumen prices of different destinations, please visit Infinity Galaxy website: https://infinitygalaxy.org/bitumen-price-today/

This article was prepared by Razieh Gilani, the export manager of Infinity Galaxy.