New York, 6 November (Argus)
Egypt
Egypt’s state-controlled EGPC sold four cargoes, each of around 3,000t, for October-loading out of Alexandria through its tender held in September. Three of the cargoes loaded in October, two of which were indicating Lebanon discharge. These were the first bitumen exports out of Alexandria since March. Loading of the fourth cargo was delayed into November. Three cargoes for loading out of Alexandria this month were sold under tender in October.
Small quantities of around 3,000-4,000 t/month continued to be exported to Sudan from the Egyptian Red Sea port of Suez under a long-standing government-to-government barter deal. No other exports from Suez were reported.
South Africa
South Africa’s bitumen market was dogged by another supply crisis last week. A fire on a hydrogen line of a diesel unit at the 185,000 b/d Shell-BP Sapref refinery in Durban forced the refinery to halt bitumen production. The nature of the damage means that bitumen production is likely to be down for the next three months. The refinery had recently returned to full operations after extended maintenance.
Bitumen supplies from the neighbouring Engen refinery and the Natref refinery near Johannesburg are being used to cover Shell and BP’s sales commitments. The impact of the shutdown will be mitigated by the annual month-long closure from mid-December of the road construction sector.
Domestic bitumen prices for November at the country’s four bitumen-producing refineries were left unchanged at October levels. This places prices in the coastal refineries of Durban at 2,800 rand/t ($376/t), in the Johannesburg region at around R2,955/t ($397/t), and in Cape Town at R2,630/t ($353/t).
A good level of demand was reported for October in both the western cape and inland around Johannesburg. Warmer temperatures meant ideal conditions for chip and spray activity. November was also set to be a buoyant month, as many of the recently released road contracts will be up and running.
Sales of bitumen in south Africa in the third quarter of the year of 76mn litres, or some 77,000t, were 7pc up on last year and 17pc higher than the same period in 2004, according to figures produced by the South African Petroleum Industry Association (Sapia). Over the first nine months of the year, however, sales of 231mn litres, or some 234,000t, were less than 2pc higher than last year and some 12pc higher than the same period in 2004.
Nigeria
The price for seaborne bitumen cargoes delivered into Nigeria was assessed some $10/t lower at $320-340/t c+f Nigeria, in line with lower European high-sulphur fuel oil (HSFO) prices. The assessed price reflects the price of Ivory Coast bitumen delivered into Nigeria and is the equivalent of an $85/t premium to the Argus published high quotation for HSFO cargoes fob Mediterranean.
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