Weekly Bitumen Report: Oil Price Orientation, Determining Factor of Bitumen Market

After more than 1 month of war in the Middle East, which led to numerous human casualties for both sides (over 12,000 people), severe consequences of the war were seen in the energy world.
By the start of this war, crude oil prices reached over 90 USD, and it was even predicted to see the level of 115 USD. Within the last few days, the prices of crude oil significantly dropped as a result of new data and reports and even the continuation of voluntary reduction of production by Russia and Saudi Arabia did not stop this fall.
On 8 November, by the release of China commercial data, crude oil prices reached its lowest level during the last 3 months, and finally, on 9 November, crude oil prices dropped to 79 USD.
Two analysts of ING Bank announced that by the reduction of supply, the market of the Middle East is worried about the disruption of supply, and instead, they are fucosed on the demand.
By the end of Tuesday and considering the statistics of the American Petroleum Institute (API), the related sources of energy markets stated that the storage of USA crude oil increased 12 million barrels during the last week.
In the meantime, China’s commercial data led to the fall in crude oil prices. While the import of crude oil to China showed a notable growth in the monthly and annual range in October 2023, the export of its refinery products decreased too rapidly. The Chinese refiners reduced their production due to low margin and reduction of export proportion.
The institute of Consultancy Energy Aspects reduced its prediction about the refinement of China’s crude oil in November and December to 100K bpd and announced the average of this amount to 15.650K million bpd for the last 3 months of the year. Besides, worries about a warm winter will decrease the demand of fuel and crude oil has affected the prices too.
On November 8, Singapore’s HSFO CST180 dropped 12 USD to reach 440 USD. Singapore’s and South Korea’s bitumen prices settled at 505 and 405 USD, respectively, and after a fall of 5 USD.
Bahrain’s bitumen was traded at 400 USD, and bitumen prices in many of the regions of Europe decreased to 430-500 USD.
After the 10-dollar fall in India, bitumen prices and the start of Diwali festival, the market faced ambiguities and although it was expected to see a surge in bitumen prices till November, like the previous years, it did not occur.
By the announcement of new circular in Iran and the expectations for a price shock, the market did not face any shocks due to the fall of demand and crude oil prices. Hence, export from Iran is still ambiguous.
On the other hand, the bitumen manufacturers were not willing to purchase vacuum bottom on 8 November, and it was sold with zero or less than 3 percentage of competition.
It seems that the market should get in line with the movements of crude oil prices, and it will be a determining factor in the future prices of Iran bitumen market within the next days.
Infinity Galaxy team is pleased to cooperate with the valued buyers of the market to experience the joy of business.
This article was prepared by Razieh Gilani, the export manager of Infinity Galaxy (www.infinitygalaxy.org).