--DES Northeast Asia

In the DES Northeast Asia(NEA) market last week, the front delivery fell to around $12.85. Prices dropped owing to the weak demand from Asia as well as the concerns about the negative impacts of the US reciprocal tariff on the global economy.

Amid this, Kyushu Electric Power Co sold two cargoes for forward delivery via a tender closed on Apr 2. Through the tender, Kyushu Electric planned to sell August and November delivery. As a result of the tender, the cargoes appeared to have been awarded at the range of discount and flat to the DES Northeast Asia spot quotations. As for the August delivery, "It is assumed that Kyushu Electric either carries an ample inventory or has procured cargo in advance because it sells the cargo delivered in the most demanding time in summer" (a Chinese end-user) was heard in the market.

--FOB Middle East, DES South Asia and the Middle East

The 77.00 mil mt/year Ras Laffan project in Qatar was heard to enter maintenance. "The maintenance will last for 1 or 1.5 months, but it is not clear how many trains in the project will take maintenance," a Japanese trading house said. The number of exported cargoes from Qatar counted 98 in March, but that is expected to count only around 40 as of now.

--FOB Atlantic, DES Europe and South America

Argentina's state-run IEASA (ENARSA) was expected to have additional spot demand. A Japanese trader reckoned that IEASA considered buying 9-10 cargoes. Nevertheless, as IEASA secured all the volume that they planned in the last tender, the next buy tender would be carried out in mid-April onwards at the earliest.