Singapore's April Western low sulfur arbitrage volumes may near 3 mil mt: traders

Singapore — Low sulfur material originating from the West and being arbitraged to the East for April arrival may near 3 million mt, Singapore-based traders surveyed by S&P Global Platts said.

April arrival volume was more or less steady, or a touch higher, than around 2.8 million mt or so of product that is expected to land in Singapore for March, traders added.

"There's a little bit of slippage from March arrival into April, not more than 200,000 mt; other than that, the rest of the volumes are entirely slated for April-arrival," said a trader based here.

Expected Western arbitrage volumes for April, like for March, in itself, would more or less suffice to meet end-user low sulfur marine fuel demand in Singapore.

As such, the market was likely to remain balanced, if not long, in the near term, traders said.

Singapore's February sales of low sulfur marine fuel, which includes the LSFO grades 100 CST, 180 CST, 380 CST and 500 CST, inched up 0.5% month on month to 2.73 million mt, accounting for two-thirds, or 66.17%, of the total sales, Platts reported on March 15 quoting latest data released by the Singapore Maritime and Port Authority.

Meanwhile, a few market participants have also said that the final tally of expected arbitrage volume for April could also end up lower than expectations due to a diversion of vessels to Fujairah.

The diversion to the Middle Eastern port was to address the shortage of low sulfur marine fuel, after Uniper Energy's 80,000 b/d crude processing unit in Fujairah shut down unexpectedly in the week of March 12.

"So far, I count about 3 Suezmaxes that were moving East, but are now headed for Fujairah," a Fujairah-based bunker supplier said.