Brazil’s base oils supply exceeded demand in April for the first time in three months as a pick-up in imports added to firm output levels.The rise in supply helped to replenish blenders’ depleted stocks and partly reflected a pick-up in shipments from the US in March.Brazil’s falling lube demand in March and April could curb any extension of that dynamic as stocks last longer and blenders seek to maintain lower inventories.Base oils supply of 144,000 cubic meters (128,000 tonnes) in April rose from less than 117,000 cubic meters in March and for the first time in five months from year-earlier levels, government data showed..Base oils output held firm above the 50,000 cubic meter/month level in April for the sixth time in seven months.Those steady volumes were increasingly insufficient to meet a sustained rise in Brazil’s lube consumption over most of the past two years.The dynamic triggered a pick-up in requirements for additional base oils supplies from overseas markets, especially the US.A drop in base oils imports late last year and early this year instead left Brazil with increasingly squeezed stocks.Supply lagged demand in the first three months of the year for a second straight quarter, reflecting that dynamic.A rebound in base oils imports in April at least temporarily reversed that trend and enabled blenders to replenish low stocks.Imports of 89,000 cubic meters in April rose from less than 60,000 cubic meters in each of the previous two months to the highest since last November.Plant maintenance work in the US in the second quarter of the year could curb any immediate extension of that pick-up in shipments.Brazil’s weakening lube consumption could simultaneously cushion blenders’ urgency to seek additional supplies.Any extension of that demand weakness over the coming months would contrast with a recovery in US base oils output following the completion of the plant-maintenance work.The scenario could put pressure on US refiners to continue to target other markets like Mexico and West Africa with any pick-up in surplus supplies.That scenario could in turn continue to leave blenders in Brazil with lower-than-usual inventories..Brazil’s April lube demand falls.Argentina’s April base oils supply falls
