Spore's base oils exports to SE Asia rise

Singapore’s base oils exports to southeast Asia exceeded shipments to India and China in October for a seventh month, highlighting the growing importance of the island-state’s own regional market.

Before this year, exports to southeast Asia had exceeded shipments to China and India combined four times in the previous five years.

This year, the last time exports to southeast Asia lagged shipments to China and India was in March.   

The trend looked set to extend into November even amid signs of a pick-up in shipments to China and India in recent weeks.

Singapore’s base oils exports of 64,810t to southeast Asia in October were almost unchanged from the previous month, government data showed.

Shipments held steady even as the city-state’s total exports fell to a 16-month low in October.

Exports to southeast Asia rose in October for the fourth time in five months, lifting total shipments to almost 655,000t in the first 10 months of the year.

The volume was up almost 20pc from year-earlier levels and accounted for more than 40pc of Singapore’s total exports. It accounted for 36pc of the total volume during the same period last year.

The rise in exports reflected a surge in shipments to Indonesia especially, as well as to other markets like Vietnam and Malaysia.

Shipments increased to meet rising lubricants consumption amid firm economic growth.

The strength of those markets contrasted with the weakness of China.

Singapore’s exports to China fell in October for the seventeenth time in eighteen months.

The last time its monthly exports to China exceeded the 40,000t level was in March. Before then, they had fallen below that level just five times since the beginning of 2020.

The rise in Singapore’s shipments to southeast Asia in the interim raised the prospect of complicating its ability to significantly raise its exports to China if and when demand in that market revived.

Singapore’s base oils exports to India fell in October to a 16-month low of less than 16,000t.

Its exports to the country had already fallen sharply in September to an 11-month low.

The slowdown coincided with a sharp fall in Singapore’s shipments from domestic sources in October.

India also took delivery of a large volume of Group II base oils from Taiwan in September and October at prices levels that were competitive versus supplies from other more regular sources.