A first Suezmax vessel for July has been booked to take HSFO from Europe to Asia, and a second fixture is expected soon, according to sources.
The Cape Brindisi Suezmax was booked by Azerbaijan’s Socar to load 130,000 mt from Rotterdam on July 8 to head to Singapore, for a lump-sum freight rate of $1.85 million, according to a shipping report.
Socar was not available to comment.
The Cape Brindisi is currently just off the Azores heading towards Bilbao in Spain and then on to Rotterdam, according to S&P Global Platts’ trade flow software cFlow.
Singapore is expected to receive less arbitrage volumes in July — estimated at between 3 million and 4 million mt in total, compared with estimates of more than 5 million mt for June.
The spread between FOB Rotterdam barges and FOB Singapore cargoes has traded just above the $10/mt mark for most of this week, squeezing margins for traders looking to take volumes East.
Source: Platts