Hong Kong bunker fuel suppliers have settled the monthly ex-wharf premiums for July-loading 380 CST cargoes with importers at $16-17/mt, a touch firmer than June’s $15.50-17/mt, market sources said Thursday.

Suppliers attributed the slightly firmer premiums to gains in the Singapore high sulfur fuel oil cargo market.

The FOB Singapore 380 CST HSFO cash differential is taken into consideration when settling ex-wharf premiums for bunker fuel in Hong Kong, as Singapore is the main supply source for Hong Kong.

The FOB Singapore 380 CST HSFO cash differential averaged plus $0.88/mt over June 1-25, compared with minus $0.19/mt in May, Platts data showed.

But suppliers noted that Hong Kong bunker fuel demand and supply fundamentals in July would be largely steady compared with June.

“Supply is more than enough,” said one bunker fuel supplier in Hong Kong.

“Demand is still thin,” said another supplier there.

HSFO is imported into Hong Kong by ExxonMobil, Chevron, Sinopec and Chimbusco Pan Nation, mainly from Singapore, and sold on an ex-wharf basis as bunker fuel to local traders and major suppliers like Chimbusco Pan Nation, Vermont, Feoso, Sinopec and Soaring Dragon.

Importers negotiate the price of ex-wharf bunker fuel with suppliers as a differential to the monthly average of the Mean of Platts Singapore 380 CST HSFO assessment. Suppliers then deliver the bunker fuel to ships using their own barges on a delivered price basis.

Hong Kong suppliers sell about 500,000 mt/month of bunker fuel, and the port has the capacity to store 450,000-500,000 mt of fuel oil.

Of the total storage capacity, ExxonMobil owns 310,000 mt, of which 250,000-260,000 mt has been leased out to Chimbusco Pan Nation since February 2012. The rest of the storage capacity is owned by Sinopec (100,000 mt) and Chevron (60,000 mt), bunker suppliers have said.