As the Holy month of Ramadan draws to a
close with the week-long Eid festivities across the Indian sub-continent and
Turkey, activity and sales seemed to gain momentum this week – perhaps with the
anticipation of firming levels in the near future. As such, following the sale
of two FSUs last week, there was another VLCC sale to report this week, at
increasingly bullish numbers.
Curiously, it seems to be certain Cash
Buyers who are driving the current pricing trend, rather than local markets /
fundamentals. Bangladesh and Pakistan have been expectedly quiet during Ramadan
and Eid holidays whilst India has remained volatile and barely aggressive on
the larger LDT units.
It will therefore be interesting to see
if prices do rise up to match some of the speculative offerings on recent
tonnage. The general consensus is that Pakistan may remain inert for some time,
due to the import of a majority of the unsold Cash Buyer VLCC and large LDT
(wet) tonnage, following their April reopening for tankers.
Bangladesh too has endured a frustrating
period on the sidelines following a dramatic decline in prices by about USD
50/LDT several months ago, leaving them as the lowest placed of all
sub-continent markets at that time. However, a recent uptick in both demand and
levels has seen Chittagong Buyers making a comeback of late. Despite this, it
does not seem that local levels are matching Cash Buyer asking prices just yet.
Source: steel guru. 19 June 2018
