Weekly Bitumen Report: The Political Incidents, the Strong Players of the Market

During the last week, two main political incidents were observed whose effects on the world economy should be traced in long-term.

In the last meeting of China Communist party, Xi Jinping was appointed as the China’s president for the third time. However, the future economic outlook of China does not seem to be promising in 2022 and 2023 and even the recession in construction departments has seriously affected China’s economy.

On the other hand, Rishi Sunak was appointed as the prime minister of the United Kingdom and Pound value against US dollar somehow improved.

The OPEC decision to cut oil production up to 2 million barrels will be effective in less than one week and in this period, the oil price improved a little and Brent Oil increased up to around 96 US dollars while the whole last week, the average of crude oil price was about 93 US dollars.

On Tuesday, HSFO CST180 increased about 7 US dollars and closed at around 386 but generally, the analysts predict a steady trend for the next week in the fields of crude oil and fuel.

Singapore bulk bitumen stabilized in the range of 560 US dollars for the fourth consecutive week. South Korea bitumen dropped by around 5 US dollars and stayed at 485 US dollars. Also, Bahrain bulk bitumen was fixed at the level of 425 US dollars for another week.

Bitumen price in the European markets was almost stable and the refineries did not receive any significant demand either.

During the last 3 weeks, the average competition of Iranian bitumen producers on the base price of vacuum bottom was around 50% and still the FOB price of packed bitumen in Bandar Abbas is above 400 US dollars.

Based on the reports received from India, the bitumen price in India is expected to increase around 30 US dollars which seems to be an attractive market considering the current restrictions for export from Iran and increase of demands from India after Diwali festival.

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