Rotterdam diesel barge daily trading volumes have risen to their highest level since October due to planned maintenance at refineries and low physical stocks in Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp, traders said Friday.
A total of 240,000 mt has traded in the Platts Market on Close assessment process since the start of April, or about 30,000 mt per trading day through Thursday.
Total middle distillate stocks in ARA are at record lows, and gasoil stocks are well below the five-year average, according to a report from French bank BNP Paribas published Friday.
Middle distillate products include diesel, gasoil and jet fuel.
The front- to second-month diesel swaps have been trading in backwardation since March 20 after trading in a contango structure in previous months, according to Platts data.
The switch from a contango to a backwardated structure in mid-March coincided with exports from ARA to the Mediterranean after an open arbitrage to the southern region allowed several traders to sell their ARA stocks at attractive prices. Vitol and Shell were two of the companies heard exporting diesel cargoes from ARA to the Mediterranean, according to traders.
Vitol has been particularly active, buying 228,800 mt on 140 barges so far this April in the MOC process.
Sources said they did not expect any significant delays or lines at terminals. Vitol has taken at least some of these volumes into Antwerp, where it operates a terminal and tank farm. Vitol has storage capacity in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Antwerp.
Clean cross-ARA barge rates are also expected to remain fairly stable, traders said.
"Rotterdam to Antwerp is still about 1.60 euros, however we don't expect there to be any increase in the rates, overall demand is still quite low," a barge operator said.
