Lonely Oil Tankers Signal Ongoing Drop in Asia-Europe Fuel Trade
- Diesel, jet fuel cargoes to remain scarce on arbitrage route
- A dearth of shipments may help beleaguered European refiners
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Shipments of diesel and jet fuel from East Asia to Europe are set to stay low for a while yet, potentially aiding hard-pressed European refiners.
Only two ships hauling about 160,000 tons of fuel have sailed the route so far this month and just one, the Navig8 Pride LHJ, is currently booked to make the voyage in the coming weeks, according to fixture lists and tanker-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s a sharp contrast with the May-June period, when in excess of two million tons arrived in Europe from East Asia, more than the combined arrivals for the whole of January-April.