Weekly Bitumen Report: Silence in the Commodity Markets after the New Year Holidays

After almost 11 months of Russia’s war against Ukraine, the martial chief commander of Russia was replaced right 3 months after his assignment. President Putin initially proposed a ceasefire 2 weeks ago but its effects on the war and world economy are not clear.

The simplification of Zero COVID conditions in China both led to economic growth and improvement and the increase in COVID cases in China. As a result, South Korea and Japan imposed new rules for Chinese passengers entering their countries. At the same time, it is heard that the USA is planning for an increase in interest rates that will create more ambiguity in the energy market.

During the last week, it was also heard that Venezuela aimed to restart its relations with the USA and increase the level of oil production and its export.

The economic recession which was previously predicted was observed during the second week of January too. The Brent crude oil did not exceed 85 USD under the pressure of various factors and its average price was around 80 USD during the previous days.

During 9-11 January, Singapore’s HSFO CST 180 experienced a wide range of fluctuations and finally, an increase of 8 USD was observed.

Singapore’s bulk bitumen was traded at 500 USD and South Korea’s bitumen price improved by 5 USD and reached 390 USD.

In India, it is heard that bitumen prices in the local markets have decreased as a result of traders’ significant discounts because of the fear of the next fall in the prices. It is expected that bitumen price in India face another fall of 15 USD in mid-January, which means that from the beginning of December 2022 to mid of January 2023, Indian refineries reduced bitumen prices by about 63 USD and it was an unprecedented record in the last 6 months.

In Iran, although the vacuum bottom increased by around 8% and severe competition was observed among the refineries, the prices did not come up with any serious increase due to the devaluation of Iran Rial against USD.

The published data show that over 42K MT of bulk bitumen was exported in the first week of January 2023.
Still, it can be stated that the market has not found its trend in the New Year and it seems that buyers need to be more cautious and stay aware with the changes in the market.

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