China June bitumen export price down by 6% on poor demand

08 June 2012 11:18  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS)--China’s bitumen export prices for June deliveries have decreased 6% because of sluggish demand in southeast Asia, market sources said on Friday.

The export price of Chinese bitumen cargoes fell by $40/tonne (6.2%) to $600-605/tonne in June from last month, according to C1 Energy, an ICIS service in China.

Sinopec on 6 June announced its June bitumen contract price at $605/tonne FOB (free on board), down by $40/tonne from May's settlement,  a Vietnamese trader said.

However no deals have yet been done, traders said.

“The price is equivalent to $635/tonne CFR (cost and freight) Haiphong, Vietnam, which is already lower than prices of many other imported products. However, we are not eager to buy the Chinese products because we hold a bearish outlook on the future bitumen market”, the trader said.

Sinopec usually announces its contract prices for next month on the 25th day of each month, but  this time it delayed the announcement by more than 10 days, mainly because there was a wait-and-see sentiment across the whole Asia bitumen market, a trader from Singapore said.

Maoming Petrochemical, a subsidiary of Sinopec, plans to export 8,000 tonnes of bitumen in June, a company source said.

By: Alfa Li
020-3762 0271

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