Thailand’s lube demand held steady at lower levels in April amid weaker engine oils consumption.Availability of surplus base oils supply from the country’s refiners still tightened as domestic demand rose for their Group I supplies.A smaller surplus cut availability of Group I base oils for export. It also curbed any pressure on domestic refiners to accept prices for surplus supplies that they deemed to be too low.Asia’s Group I base oils cargo prices extended their rise relative to diesel prices throughout the month of May.The firm prices reflected the region’s persistently tight supply-demand fundamentals for the product.Thailand’s total lube consumption of 32,400 kilolitres (28,700 tonnes) in April fell from more than 43,000 kilolitres in March, government data showed.Demand was steady from year-earlier levels.The country’s lube demand usually peaks each year in the month of March before falling back the following month.Signs of a repeat of that trend in several other key markets throughout Asia raised the prospect of a slowdown in the region’s lube consumption in the month of April from March.Thailand’s base oils demand for supplies from the country’s two domestic refiners by contrast rose by 11% in April from a year earlier to more than 11,000 kilolitres.Tighter availability of Group I base oils in the Asia-Pacific market cut domestic blenders’ supply options from other sources in the region.Tighter regional availability instead boosted the attraction of locking in more supplies from Thailand’s Group I base oils refiners.Firmer demand for domestic supplies in turn cut availability for export.The country’s base oils exports of close to 14,000 kilolitres in April rebounded from a seven-year low of less than 2,000 kilolitres the previous month.Exports still fell by 4% and for a fourth month from year-earlier levels.Tighter supply restricted exports mostly to just Singapore and China.The last time any shipments moved from Thailand to the Middle East was in the third quarter of last year..Japan’s April base oils supply stays lower.India’s April lube demand mixed
