London — FOB Rotterdam jet fuel barges have dropped to a 15-month low versus theirCIF NWE cargo counterparts as demand continues to focus on the larger clipsizes.
Jet barges were assessed at a $7.50/mt discount versus cargoes onWednesday, down $3/mt on the day and the widest discount since January 12,2017.
"There's definitely a demand for the barges, but they're definitely nottight like they were a couple of weeks ago," one source said.
Another source struggled to see the rationale for the wide discount,however. "Normally with backwardation, I would expect barges to be closer tocargoes, [but there's] not much interest in barges," the source said.
Buying interest has been concentrating around cargoes, which have been inrelatively short supply over the first quarter of the year.
Arrivals into the region are set to be around 1.9 million mt in April,according to data from S&P Global Platts trade flow software cFlow, but themajority of vessels already have buyers attached, sources said. This wasserving to support cargo prices.
--Caroline Knight, caroline.knight@spglobal.com
--Edited by Alisdair Bowles, alisdair.bowles@spglobal.com