--DES Northeast Asia

No new demand from Northeast Asia has been continuing. For Japanese players, the last time they purchased cargo for consumption was more than one month ago; many trades just ended up either reselling or time swapping. The off-demand season was a major reason for that; at the same time, "June is a season of personnel change for Japanese companies, making it difficult to move aggressively in procurement" (an European trader) might be associated with it. Chinese companies did not show interest in buying cargo owing to the weak economy and perception of too-high prices.

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

Indian Oil Corp (IOC) was seen to have purchased a cargo to be delivered to the 5.00 mil mt/year Ennore terminal on Jun 1-10 at $11.80 via its buy tender closed on May 15. However, the awarded price was $11.60-11.70, according to a source.

--FOB Atlantic, DES Europe and South America

Sonatrach in Algeria appeared to have issued a sell tender on an FOB basis. Through the tender, the company planned to sell one cargo loading either from the 20.8 mil mt/year Arzew project or the 4.5 mil mt/year Skikda project on around Jun 1. The closing date of the tender was not heard.