Chinese Industrial Production Up 7% for January 2024
March 19, 2024
Stockpiles of middle distillates in Singapore, the reginal hub for refined fuels, surged 8% last week to reach the highest since September 2021 as net exports of diesel dropped by 98%. Total middle distillates in Singapore were 10.97 million barrels last week, up from 9.99 million the prior week, with stockpiles being boosted by an increase in arrivals from South Korea and China.
Energy price rallied in yesterday’s trading mainly driven by several Russian refineries offline due to Ukraine drone strikes. Also, news out of China showing that industrial production grew by 7% in January 2024 and February 2024 versus the same time last year. Also supportive to the market yesterday was news that Iraq intends to cut oil exports to 3.3 million barrel per day, a reduction of 130,000 bpd from last months’ output.
The preliminary estimates are that approximately 15% of Russian refinery capacity has been disrupted in recent days. JP Moran reported that there have been 23 drone attacks on Russian energy facilities-two on oil terminals, four on oil and fuel depots, and 14 on refiners. While damages at most facilities were repaired relatively quickly, almost 900,000 bpd of refining capacity remains offline likely for several weeks if not months.
The market got the NAHB February home builders confidence number yesterday, and the expectation was for it to be 48 a repeat of last month but it was up to 51. This has increased four months in a row and at 51 is the first time this has been in expansionary territory since July.