Weekly Bitumen Report: Market Experiencing The Firsts

As it was reported in the last 4 articles of Infinity Galaxy, the market has been experiencing a continuous price rise. Therefore, we suggested the strategy of investment based on market trends.

For the first time in the last 7 years, crude oil got almost stable in the level of 80 US dollar and no sign of drop is seen yet.

The improvement of vaccination in India and other countries reduced the lockdowns to the least possible level and the businesses improved accordingly.

In Iran, two of the main refineries of Vacuum Bottom production are whether on their annual overhaul or planning for an overhaul. Accordingly, production of Vacuum Bottom decreased significantly and the competitions among the refineries raised. For the first time during the last 28 months, bitumen price touched above 400 US dollar on FOB basis which is the result of crude oil and furnace oil surges.

The turmoil in marine transportation is still one of the main concerns of the market’s players. New regulations in main ports of Mundra and Kandla, shortage of containers and vessel spaces are the factors that let the shipping lines increase ocean freights. Hence, the CFR offers of less than 400 US dollar cannot be found. We might say that it is also the first time a terminal clearly announces shutting down the shipping of cargoes from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran.

Indian refineries seem to experience another increase of 20 US dollar by 16 October. The demand is probably about to jump as India is planning for a strong push for infrastructure developments in its 2021 fiscal year budget.

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