Taiwan's Feb exports to SE Asia fall

Taiwan’s base oils exports to southeast Asia and India slumped in February, reversing a surge in supplies to the region the previous month.

The slide in shipments followed a rebound in Taiwan’s exports to the two regions in January and highlighted the impact of a pick-up in demand from China.

The strength of the rise in Chinese demand was set to have a major influence on the availability of surplus supplies for outlets like southeast Asia and India.

The surge in Taiwan’s exports to the two regions in January coincided with weaker-than-expected demand in China that month.

Exports to the two regions fell in February as most of Taiwan’s shipments moved to China.

The relative strength of China’s demand recovery was likely to have a similar impact on shipments from other major producers such as South Korea.

Mixed signals about the state of China’s recovery in demand raised the prospect of intermittent waves of shipments to other markets over the coming months.

Taiwan’s base oils exports to southeast Asia and India came to around 6,500t in February, government data showed.

The volume was down from more than 27,700t in January and came to less than 20pc of Taiwan’s total exports of almost 33,000t in February.

The share was down from more than 60pc of Taiwan’s January base oils exports.

The January volume got a boost from the shipment of more than 14,000t of base oils to India, up from just 20t in December.

There were no base oils exports to India in February. There were then signs of a rebound in shipments to India in March.

The volatility of export flows contrasted with unusually steady and high volumes to India from the second quarter of last year through to November.

The prospect of less regular flows from Taiwan to markets like southeast Asia and India would cut a steady flow of spot shipments to those regions and leave buyers needing to cover requirements with supplies from other sources.