|
|
|
Asia LPG hits record on higher crude prices, drop in stockpiles |
SINGAPORE: Asian liquefied petroleum gas rose to a record on higher crude oil prices and lower stockpiles in Japan as winter heating demand increases.
Propane for delivery to Japan gained 6% to $890 a metric ton, including cost and freight. Butane added 5.8% to $915 a ton. Crude oil in New York has gained 2.5% this week after reaching an all-time high of $99.29 a barrel.
“Inventory is low in Japan,” said Hiroki Ito, LPG trading manager at Total SA in Singapore. “Transactions are few as the market awaits Saudi Aramco’s December contract price.”
LPG inventories in Japan, Asia’s largest buyer, fell as imports slowed. The nation’s LPG stockpiles dropped to 2.41mn tonnes in late October from 2.55mn tonnes in September, according to a report compiled by Japan LPG Association.
The nation’s imports declined 5.9% to 1.03mn tonnes in October from a year earlier, according to a report on Wednesday by the Ministry of Finance.
LPG imports by value rose 1.7% to ¥76.2bn. Saudi Aramco, the largest supplier to Asia, sold a 44,000-tonne cargo of propane at a record price of $860 a tonne, free-on- board, to Royal Dutch Shell. The cargo will load at Ras Tanura in late December.
The price surpassed a sale by Aramco earlier in the week at $840 a tonne to Glencore International AG. The 44,000-tonne cargo is scheduled to load from Yanbu in the second-half of December.
Inventory of propane in the US, the largest LPG user, declined 396,000 barrels in the week ended November. 16 because of “chilly temperatures in the Northeast and Midwest,” the Energy Department said in its the report. Stockpiles fell to an estimated 61.2mn barrels, 9.7mn barrels below the level a year ago, Energy Department data showed.
China’s imports slumped 32% to 318,000 tonnes in October from September, according to data from the Beijing-based Customs General Administration. While propane purchase rose 9.3% from a year ago, butane imports tumbled 37%.
“Price is the main concern,” said Phoebe Deng, a gas market analyst at Guangdong Oil and Gas Association. “Importers aren’t confident that end users will accept surging costs.” Prices of imported LPG in the southeastern Guangdong province rose to 7,880 yuan ($1,064) a tonne from 7,850 yuan a week earlier on an ex-tank basis, Deng said. – Bloomberg |
|
|
|
