Weekly Bitumen Report: The Gradual Uptrend of Iran Bitumen Price
After 15 years, Iran officially became a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in the last week. The overall GDP of its members is 23 trillion and 307 billion dollars, which is 24.2% of the global GDP. Besides, the population of its country members is 3 billion and 330 million people, equal to 42% of the world population.
In 2021, BP, the British Oil Company, reported that 8 members of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation plus Iran have almost 20% of the world oil reserves, 44% of natural gas, and 50% of uranium reserves.
On Tuesday, Mr. Narenda Modi congratulated Iran’s membership in this organisation. Yet, time is needed to see if the permanent membership of Iran can have any effect on the business relation between Iran and other countries.
On the other hand, the chairman of Shell Oil Company told BBC that the reduction of oil and gas is “dangerous and irresponsible.” Wael Sawan insisted that the world is in a severe need of oil and gas, as the movement toward renewable energies and its replacement with oil is not happening with sufficient speed. He warned that by the increase of demand from China and the cold winter in Europe, the energy costs will increase once again.
On July 5, Singapore’s HSFO CST180 increased 3 USD and got stable at 455 USD, and its bulk bitumen reached 445 USD.
Bahrain bitumen was traded at the fixed level of 390 USD. Although there was a retreat in Singapore’s bitumen price, it increased in Spain and some regions of Africa.
After 4 frequent falls in India bitumen price, which is the lowest level from the beginning of 2023, it seems that Indian refineries have no further plan for more drop in the prices.
Like the previous weeks, Iran’s situation was complicated. While oil price did not see any significant uptrend, the average of competition among the refineries increased again and it is predicted that the base price of vacuum bottom is subject to increase by the beginning of the month.
It seems the Iran market is following an increasing trend by the surge of demand from India and other markets.
Besides, congestion in Bandar Abbas and logistic issues in Jebel Ali led to the late delivery of the orders.
In case we do not observe any new incident in the market, the gradual increase of bitumen price can be expected.
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This article was prepared by Razieh Gilani, export manager of Infinity Galaxy (www.infinitygalaxy.org).
