In High Sulphur Fuel Oil (HSFO), the Mar’25 3.5% barge crack saw a significant rally this fortnight, climbing from -$7.40/bbl on 14 Jan to -$5/bbl on 31 Jan (at the time of writing). However, the Mar/Apr’25 3.5% barge spread was more rangebound, initially strengthening from $3.25/mt to $5.25/mt between 15 and 21 Jan before shedding these gains over the following week and sitting on $4/mt at the time of writing. This support emerged from trade house buying this week amid less significant end-user and fund selling. Further deferred, trade houses were seen buying Q3’25 3.5% barge cracks. In Asia, the Mar/Apr’25 Sing 380 cst spread also strengthened over the past two weeks, climbing from $7.50/mt on 15 Jan to $12.75/mt, although we now see the spread meet resistance at this level. The Mar’25 380 East/West (Sing 380 cst vs 3.5% barges) strengthened to $25.50/mt on 29 Jan, having been at $15/mt on 15 Jan, but softened to $22.50/mt at the time of writing amid trade house selling in the E/W and a strengthening NWE HSFO complex. Finally, the Mar’25 Visco weakened from over $9/mt a fortnight ago to $6.75/mt at the time of writing.
