Taiwan’s February base oil exports rise

Taiwan’s base oil exports rose in February on the back of a jump in shipments to China especially.

Exports rose to 47,470t in February, up from 36,630t the previous month, government data showed.

Taiwan’s base oil exports of 177,240t in the four months to February rose from less than 42,000t during the previous four months.

The contrast reflected the restart of Formosa Petrochemical's 600,000 t/yr Group II base oil plant in late September following a longer-than-expected shutdown for maintenance. The plant had been offline throughout most of the third quarter of last year.

The rise in base oil shipments from the start of the fourth quarter coincided with a sharp fall in regional Group II base oil prices during that period. Prices then began to steady from the end of last year.