Bio-bunker sales down in Rotterdam and Antwerp in third quarter

Gibraltar’s B30-VLSFO at $252/mt premium over VLSFO

Singapore’s B30-VLSFO price falls as VLSFO gains

Europe

Rotterdam’s B30-VLSFO (POMEME) price has gained $11/mt in the past week, while the Dutch port’s conventional VLSFO price has jumped $30/mt over the same period.

This has narrowed Rotterdam’s B30-VLSFO price premium over conventional VLSFO by $19/mt, to $155/mt.

Dutch suppliers can generate ZRE A tickets for selling low-carbon fuels, which can be traded with other suppliers. The price of these tickets held at €240/mtCO2e ($269/mtCO2e) on Thursday this week, unchanged from last Thursday.

These ZRE A tickets help lower Rotterdam’s biofuel prices compared with other ports. Belgium has no such mechanism.

Prima Markets’ ARA UCOME and POMEME barge prices, both indicators of feedstock sourcing costs, have each dropped $73/mt in the past week, to $1,682/mt and $1,752/mt respectively. That leaves UCOME at a $70/mt discount to POMEME.

Lower feedstock costs may have helped narrow Rotterdam’s B30-VLSFO premium over conventional VLSFO.

Rotterdam’s bio-bunker demand has also weakened. Suppliers in the port sold 154,000 mt of bio-bunker fuel in the third quarter, down 38% from the second quarter, Port of Rotterdam data shows.

Bio-VLSFO sales more than halved to 63,000 mt, while bio-MGO sales slipped just 4% to 41,000 mt.

The port authority does not report B100 separately and says it is most probably included in bio-MGO. B100 samples recorded by ENGINE in Rotterdam more than doubled in the first eight months of the year, and growing B100 demand may help explain why bio-MGO sales held steady.

In the neighbouring Belgian port of Antwerp, B100 (UCOME) has been priced at $1,974/mt today, down $10/mt on the week.

Antwerp-Bruges’ biofuel bunker sales halved from the previous quarter to 13,000 mt in the third quarter, port authority data shows. That was the port’s lowest quarterly biofuel volume since the fourth quarter of last year.

Biofuels made up less than 1% of the port’s total bunker sales of 2.16 million mt in the third quarter.

Gibraltar’s B30-VLSFO (UCOME) is priced at $1,050/mt, a $252/mt premium over the port’s conventional VLSFO price.

B30-LSMGO is priced at $1,560/mt in Portugal's Aveiro, down $10/mt in the past week.

B100 is priced at $1,645/mt in Aveiro, down $67/mt on the week.

Asia

Singapore’s B30-VLSFO (UCOME) price has dropped $22/mt in the past week to $1,128/mt, even as the port’s conventional VLSFO price has gained $35/mt over the same period.

This has narrowed Singapore’s B30-VLSFO price premium over conventional VLSFO by $57/mt, to $184/mt.

Prima Markets’ price assessment for China UCOME cargo, which is a key feedstock for Singapore’s B30-VLSFO blend, has held at $1,220/mt, unchanged from last week.

B100 has been priced at $1,493/mt in Singapore today.

By Nachiket Tekawade

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