Europe’s base oils exports to non-EU markets fell to a multi-year low in September, mirroring a steep drop in Asia’s exports that month and a dip in shipments from the US.The overlapping fall in shipments cut total exports from the three regions to a twenty-one month low.The drop in shipments curbed blenders' opportunity to replenish stocks in markets like Latin America, Africa and southeast Asia at the end of the third quarter of the year.The dynamic raised the prospect of steadier buying interest in those markets at the start of the fourth quarter.Europe’s base oils exports to non-EU markets fell to less than 210,000 tonnes in September, government data showed.The volume fell from more than 240,000 tonnes in August to the lowest in more than five years.Exports fell mostly because of a dip in supplies from Spain and the UK, whose shipments to overseas markets fell to a six-month low in September.A slump in exports from Spain in September preceded the start of maintenance work on a Group III unit in the country from the end of the third quarter.Plant maintenance work in Asia was also a key factor behind the fall in that region’s exports to a four-year low in September.Exports from the US fell in September from the previous month but still rose for the third time in four months from year-earlier levels.Total exports from the three regions duly dipped to around 1.20 million tonnes in September.The volume fell from more than 1.50 million tonnes the previous month to the lowest since end-2022.It was also down from typical exports of more than 1.35 million tonnes in the month of September in each of the previous five years.The fall in exports at the end of the third quarter coincided with a seasonal pick-up in demand in many key markets around that time.The drop in supplies duly left overseas blenders with lower stocks heading into the fourth quarter of the year..US September base oil/lube exports fall.Asia’s September lube demand falls.South Korea’s Sept base oils exports fall
