Daily Bunker Price Report, Tuesday Mar 5, 2013

Bunker prices continued on a downward trend that started in mid-February

Global bunker prices on Tuesday largely continued on the downward trend started in mid February, but Ship & Bunker data showed some markets were starting to become a little more mixed and some key ports made their first price gains in a number of days.

A small gain for Busan IFO in East Asia was the exception to what was mostly a $2.00 to $3.00 per metric tonne (pmt) downward movement in the region, with distillates falling as much as $10.00 pmt.

South East Asia was a little more mixed, as Singapore IFO380 ended a run of five consecutive market days of drops with a gain of $2.50 to $628.50 pmt. Low sulfur 380 cSt product (LS380) was down $5.50 to $723.50 making the premium for the Emissions Control Area (ECA) compliant fuel $95.00 pmt, while MGO was down for a sixth market day, falling $3.00 to $938.00 pmt.

In the EMEA region, Polish ports were up $2.00 and $3.00 for IFO and distillates respectively, but bunker prices were largely moving down in Europe.

Rotterdam IFO380 was down $2.50 to $602.00 pmt for a month-on-month change of $-35.00. LS380 slipped $3.00 to $633.50 making the premium for the low sulfur grade $31.50 pmt, and MGO was down $2.00 to $906.50 pmt.

Fujairah IFO380 moved up $1.50 to $632.50 pmt, which compared to other major bunkering hubs over the last month has lost a relatively small $11.50. MGO at the port was up $4.00 to $1016.00 pmt.

Markets in the Americas were more mixed than elsewhere in the world, with IFO on South America's Atlantic coast mostly heading up by around $5.00 pmt.

Houston IFO380 has not seen a gain in its price since February 14, 2012, and today was down $2.00 to $612.50 pmt for a change of $-46.50 in that time. LS380 was down $1.50 to $705.50 to put the low sulfur premium at $93.00 pmt, while MGO ended a run of eight consecutive market days of downward movements by gaining $8.00 to $1011.50 pmt.