In High Sulphur Fuel Oil (HSFO), the 3.5% barge complex weakened into the new year. The Feb/Mar’25 3.5% barge spread dropped from $4/mt on 27 Dec to a contango of -$1/mt on 14 Jan. While this contango was short-lived, the spread remains pressured and was seen at $1.25/mt on 17 Jan (at the time of writing). Coupling this with a stronger crude, the Feb’25 3.5% barge crack fell from -$5.60/bbl on 27 Dec to -$7.70/bbl at the time of writing. The crack has also seen significant sell-side interest from trade houses (who flipped from being net buyers on 8 Jan), end users, hedge funds and banks. In Asia, the Feb/Mar’25 Singapore 380 cst spread softened at the start of the year but rallied from $2/mt on 7 Jan to $7.50/mt on 17 Jan amid increased trade house and major buying. Accordingly, the Feb’25 380 East/West (380 vs 3.5% barges) surged up to $25.75/mt on 17 Jan. The differential between 180 cst and 380 cst fuel oil (Visco) in Feb’25 declined from $8.25/mt on 3 Jan to $6.50/mt on 17 Jan (at the time of writing).
