Weekly Bitumen Report: Raise of Positive Signals in the Market
In his recent remarks, Joe Biden, the president of USA, clearly criticized the performance of Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel. He declared that Netanyahu’s disregard for “innocent lives” is “hurting Israel”. A few days ago, and in the annual congress of America, Biden stated that the US military would set up the pier off the coast of Gaza to increase deliveries of humanitarian aids in the region. America hopes to increase the number of humanitarian aids through this pier to “more than hundred trucks per day”. However, the disagreement on ceasefire before the start of Ramadan month and failure to reduce tensions in the Middle East region are still the main factors of people deaths and surge of crude oil prices.
In the meantime, Aramco, the petroleum refinery of Saudi Arabia, estimated that the growth trend of oil demand in China is positive and they plan to have more investment in China. Meanwhile, by last week, China announced its economic plan for 2024, aiming for 5% economic growth. However, some of the western analysts accused China of providing limited economic statistics.
On Wednesday, 13 March, Reuters reported that oil price increased as a result of positive outlook into global demand of crude oil from China and USA. However, the remaining signs of inflation in America did not affect the possibility of interest rate reduction and it will probably decrease within the next few months.
At the same time, OPEC and International Energy Agency (IEA) declared various points of view regarding oil demand. In February 2024, IEA predicted that demand will increase to 1.22 million barrels per day in 2024 while, in February report of OPEC, it was expected to reach 2.25 million barrels per day. This is about a 1% difference in global demand and this is the first time during last 16 years that such a significant disagreement is observed between these 2 organizations.
On Thursday, Brent crude oil reached 84 USD but still, it has not exceeded the range of 80-85 USD. In the meantime, Singapore’s 180 CST increased 3 dollars and reached 466 USD, Singapore’s bulk bitumen fell by 5 dollars and closed at 410 USD. Bitumen price in South Korea and Bahrain remained stable at 400 and 360 USD, respectively.
Bitumen price in Europe settled in the range of 430-490 USD.
On March 15, India will probably face a fall of 7 dollars.
The increase in sea freight rates for various destinations, along with the highly competitive market conditions, has led to even the smallest changes causing concern for exporters and importers of the two countries.
In Iran, the export pressure is still strongly felt, in spite of stability of prices in the last working week of the year and first week of Ramadan. The factors like climatic issues, delays in vessel arrivals, concerns about restricted traffic during holidays and increases in port costs have faced exports with challenges.
Infinity Galaxy company wishes a prosperous Persian New Year filled with peace to all customers and market players and invites them to make informed decisions for their purchases.
This article was prepared by Razieh Gilani, the export manager of Infinity Galaxy.
