Singapore — Traded oil futures on Japan’s Tokyo Commodity Exchange fell 12.72% month on month to 287,698 trades in February, data provided by TOCOM showed.
Year-on-year, traded oil futures plunged 34.66% from 440,336 trades in February 2018, TOCOM data showed.
Traded oil futures on TOCOM in February were mostly lower month on month, with the gasoline contract posting the biggest month-on-month decline of 24.96% to 26,471 trades in February.
Traded Dubai crude contracts was 11.19% lower month on month to 251,383 trades in February, while traded kerosene contracts fell 12.42% month on month to 7,630 trades.
February was a particularly weak period for the Asian jet fuel/kerosene spot market, with lackluster buying interest from Japan. In addition to the weather being relatively mild this year, Japan has also been better stocked.
“There was no cold snap this year, and Japan bought much more kerosene last year preparing for this winter,” a Singapore-based trader said.
“Japan was exporting jet/kerosene, especially in February,” a Northeast Asian refiner added.
On gasoil, cash-settled barge and cash-settled lorry gasoil contracts both fell 5.26% to 216 trades in February, TOCOM showed.
Fundamentals in the Asian gasoil market, however, strengthened in February, as trading activity picked up after an extended lull stretching over November 2018-January 2019.
The uptick in the Asian gasoil market in February came on expectations of firmer gasoil demand in China following the end of the Lunar New Year festivities. In addition, an oversupply of gasoil regionally was being cleared out of North Asia over February, thanks to several newbuild VLCCs being booked to move the middle distillate to Western markets, industry sources said.
TOCOM provides futures and options trading in oil, precious metals and agriculture.
All oil futures contracts are physically delivered except for the Dubai crude, and barge- and lorry-delivered contracts, which are cash settled.
–Ng Jing Zhi, [email protected]
–Clarice Chiam, [email protected]
–Zameer Yusof, [email protected]
–Edited by Geetha Narayanasamy, [email protected]
Source: S&P Global Platts
