Italy’s lube demand fell in December at its fastest pace in nine months, pointing to an unusually steep slide in Europe’s lube consumption at the end of the year.Italy’s lube consumption of 26,000 tonnes in December fell by 8% from year-earlier levels, government data showed.Demand fell on the back off a 9% slump in consumption of automobile lubricants and a 7% drop in consumption of industrial oils.The year-on-year fall in Italy’s total lube demand was the seventh in eight months and the steepest since last March.The sharpness of the contraction compounded the size of a seasonal dip in consumption at year-end.The 7,300-tonne fall in demand in December from the month of November was the largest year-end contraction in at least a decade.Blenders typically cut their inventories before year-end in anticipation of the seasonal dip in demand.The size of the contraction likely still left them with larger-than-expected stocks of finished lubricants and feedstock base oils supplies.An overhang of inventories and the prospect of demand extending its contraction would cut blenders’ requirements for replenishment supplies at the start of this year.It also incentivized them to maintain low stocks and to procure small volumes of top-up supplies more frequently.Signs of healthy availability of supply of most base oils grades facilitated such moves.Europe’s lube consumption likely fell as much or even more steeply at the end of last year.Europe’s lube demand typically tracks demand trends in Italy, whose consumption data is released several weeks earlier than most other countries in the region.Lube demand in other key European markets also faced a sustained slide last year. But the size of the contraction outpaced the fall in Italy’s lube demand in six of the last seven months to November. .Europe’s November lube demand falls
