Chinese traders ship jet fuel from Singapore to Europe
SINGAPORE (Reuters) — Chinese traders are shipping jet fuel from Singapore to Europe even as domestic demand in China is set to strengthen during summer season air travel, industry sources said.
China Aviation Oil (Singapore), subsidiary of state-owned China National Aviation Fuel Group, and Unipec, trading arm of state oil major Sinopec, have provisionally booked vessels to ship jet fuel west, three industry sources familiar with the matter said.
Sinopec's Hong Kong unit was also seeking jet fuel barrels in oil price agency S&P Global Platts' trading period known as market-on-close (MOC) this week, traders said. The company seldom participates in the MOC process.
The shipments could end up tightening the Asian jet fuel market and lifting prices, but for now, according to one of the sources, trade is profitable into Europe.
Refinery maintenance and peak summer demand for airline travel is already absorbing jet fuel supply in China, which could be why Chinese traders are shipping barrels from Singapore instead, said a source familiar with the Chinese market.
"The summer holidays are approaching so (China's) jet fuel demand is going up, plus there are at least three refineries having maintenance so could explain why the sudden interest (for barrels from Singapore)," the source added.
Phone calls to CAO and Sinopec offices in Singapore and Beijing went unanswered.
CAO has chartered the SKS Dokka to ship 90 Mt of jet fuel to load from Singapore on June 20, bound for the United Kingdom or European continent (UKC), according to shipping data from Thomson Reuters Eikon and shipbrokers.
The ship is currently docked at Malaysia's Sungai Udang port, the Eikon data shows.
Unipec has provisionally booked the Captain Paris to ship 80 Mt of jet fuel from Singapore to UKC to load on June 22, a Singapore-based shipbroker said.
Unipec had initially tried to book another vessel but failed due to berthing restrictions. It is planning to charter a second vessel to ship jet fuel in the same route, sources have said.
If the cargoes are successfully fixed, jet fuel shipments from Singapore to Europe will hit at least 240 Mt in June, the highest monthly volumes for this year and more than six times the volumes shipped in May, data from trade development agency International Enterprise showed.
Unipec and CAO seldom ship jet fuel from Singapore, traders said. They could also be trying to sell excess cargoes they bought in Singapore recently, one of them said.
CAO and Unipec have snapped up at least 2.97 MMbbl, or about 400 Mt, of jet fuel in Singapore from the start of June, traders said.
Reporting by Jessica Jaganathan
Comments