HSFO
HSFO saw a contrasting performance in Europe and Asia which allowed the 380 E/W to rally significantly.
380 inched up in the fortnight, with the Jun/Jul 380 rising from $6.50/mt on May 3 to $8.50/mt on May 17. The net flow in the Jun crack flipped to selling on May 13 with 95kbbls net short on May 14.
The 3.5% Bgs crack fell from -$8/bbl on May 7 to a low of -$10.45/bbl on May 16. There was heavy selling pressure in the Jun crack with trade houses selling 920kbbls of the prompt to Onyx in the past 2 weeks.
This difference in allowed for the E/W to soar to highs of over $26.50/mt on May 17. There was good trade house selling into the rally, with 1.7mbbls sold to Onyx over the fortnight.
VLSFO
Aside from a mini-peak between May 08 and May 10, outright VLSFO contracts have had a fairly rangebound fortnight, however the E/W and cracks saw more zealous price action.
The 0.5% E/W consistently built strength from May 03 to May 10, rising from $43.50/mt to $46.95/mt before sharply declining on May 16 to $44.10/mt. In line with this, trade houses increased their net positioning in the prompt E/W contract between May 03 and May 09 from -57kbbls to 229kbbls.
In a similar fashion to the E/W, price action in the prompt 0.5% barge crack and Sing 0.5% crack rose from May 03 to May 10 by around $0.70 and $1.10 to $4.35/bbl and $11.70/bbl, respectively.
The VLSFO cracks also both subsequently weakened significantly on May 16, spurred in part by the Sing 0.5% crack by trade houses (-82kbbls) and end users (-31kbbls) reducing their net positioning.
