Singapore bunker fuel oil prices rose on Tuesday as soaring benchmark cargo and crude pulled offers higher even as they scared many ship-owners out of an already thinly traded market.
Prices for 380-centistoke (cst) bunker fuel oil were pegged at $178/$180 a tonne, up $4 on the day, but there were no quotes heard for lighter 180-cst, which on Monday was pegged $6 above 380-cst, dealers said.
Traders said inquiries were fewer than 10,000 tonnes as many of the region's biggest ship-owners from Japan and China were out of the market for holidays.
"With soaring cargo prices, the few players in the market are now adopting a wait-and-see attitude," one independent trader said, referring to fuel oil cargo prices, which hovered near a 10-month high. (For details click [nSP309139])
"If cargo prices keep going up we're going to see the typical bunker market premium disappear for a while," he said.
Bunker market prices are under pressure from current high stocks and an estimated volume of at least three million tonnes of fuel oil due to arrive in Singapore in the second half of May and early June, up from the average monthly intake of about 2.5 million tonnes a month.
Marine gas oil was quoted at $320 a tonne up from the midpoint of a recent wide range of quotes of $302-$315, traders said.
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