China is likely to import about 1.85-mil mt of fuel oil in September, down by 13% or 280,000mt from the estimate for August, C1 shipping schedule showed.
Chinese importers showed weak interest in September-delivery fuel oil when international crude was fluctuating. In addition, bunker players still had abundant stockpiles after replenishment in August and they had weak speculative demand.
The country's imports of straight-run fuel oil from most regular suppliers will probably decline this month, in part because of tight supply amid pervasive refinery maintenance worldwide.
M100 fuel oil supply from Russia is also tight because of converging refinery maintenance, merely sufficient to meet demand from term contracts, C1 learned from market sources. As a result, the CFR premium of such fuel oil rose to about US$63/mt for delivery to Shandong in September, though demand from Chinese buyers was still weak.
Only one cargo of Kazakhstan fuel oil has been arranged for delivery to China this month, C1 found. The cargo was probably traded with CFR premium below US$85/mt. Most Kazakhstan fuel oil cargoes that were booked in July and August were for shipment to Europe or the USA, said a source with Kazakhstan's state-owned oil company KMG.
Guangdong Zhenrong Energy will not ship any Iranian fuel oil cargoes to China in September, said a source with the company. Fuel oil supply from the Middle East is still tight.
