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DJ ASIA FUEL OIL: Prices Up;China's May Imports Could Shrink(Comtex Business Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)SINGAPORE, Apr 26, 2006 (Dow Jones Commodities News via Comtex) --Fuel oil prices in Asia were slightly higher Wednesday, in line with an early afternoon rise in crude futures in electronic trading. The physical price of 180 cst fuel oil was assessed at $361.70 a metric ton, up $2.35 from Tuesday. No deals were done in the Singapore cash market. BP and Shell maintained their bids at a premium of $1.50/ton over the Singapore mean. Singapore fuel oil swaps also edged up. May swaps for 180 cst fuel oil were quoted around $359.75-$360.25/ton, compared with $357.75-$358.00/ton. Buying interest from Chinese end users picked up slightly due to stockpiling ahead of the week-long Labor Day holiday from May 1 to 7. But their demand was not large enough to mop up a heavy inflow of fuel oil cargoes. Around 12 cargoes totaling about 719,000 tons are scheduled to arrive at South China's Huangpu port in the last week of this month, accounting for 60% of total imports for April, the latest tanker fixtures show. Of this, two cargoes with a volume of 145,000 tons are being loaded from Singapore. Many unsold cargoes will end up in importers' oil tanks, damping their interest for cargoes for May delivery, said traders. Although it's hard to forecast China's fuel oil imports for May, most traders said the volume will be much lower than April. Premiums for China-bound fuel oil cargoes have fallen slightly over the past few weeks, but this may not attract Chinese importers to book more cargoes, as they are still fretting over high outright prices in Singapore. Cracked fuel oil cargoes loading from Singapore were heard being fixed around $11/ton, cost-and-freight South China basis, lower than $12-$13/ton two weeks ago, said a Singapore-based trader. Cracked fuel oil with low metal content loading from South Korea and Japan was mostly fixed at a premium of $14-$15/ton, C&F South China basis, while straight-run fuel oil cargoes from South Korea were mostly quoted around a $20/ton premium, C&F South China basis, the trader said. The supply of Russian M100 straight-run fuel oil remained ample, but demand was depressed. These cargoes were mostly being fixed at a premium of $25/ton, C&F South China basis, he said. In tender news, India's Kochi Refineries issued a tender to sell 25,000 tons of 180 cst fuel oil with 3.5% sulfur content and 0.991 density for May 15-19 loading from Cochin. The tender closes Saturday. Kochi refineries last sold a similar cargo for May 1-5 loading to Vitol at a discount of $11.50/ton to the Singapore mean. -By Sherry Su, Dow Jones Newswires; 65-64154065; [email protected] -Edited by George Bernard (END) Dow Jones Newswires 04-26-06 0734ET |