Biofuel Bunker Snapshot: Reversing most previous gains
B24 and B30 prices down across major ports
Bio-LSMGO blends fall hardest
CNSL blends offered far below POME
Rotterdam
Rotterdam’s B30 HBE blend prices have reversed most of their gains from the previous week. Downward price pressures have come from all the inputs.
The price of palm oil mill effluent (POME), a typical feedstock in these blends, has come off by $17/mt in the past week, according to PRIMA Markets. Pure VLSFO has shed $8/mt, while LSMGO has tumbled $36/mt lower. And the PRIMA-assessed HBE rebate for B30 blends sold in the Netherlands has gone up by $5/mt, adding another downward pressure on prices.
Prices for B30 UCOME blends in the ARA have come down by similar amounts amid a $17/mt drop in ARA UCOME barges assessed by PRIMA. The downward trend was unexpected as the biofuel industry thought prices would rise into 2025, and producers will likely see improved margins, PRIMA says.
B30 and B100 biofuel products have been offered in the ARA with huge price variances. Cashew nut shell liquid (CNSL) is a relatively cheap biofuel feedstock and CNSL-based B100 has been offered more than $200/mt below prices for POME-based B100.
CNSL has been warned against as a potentially problematic feedstock by fuel testing lab VPS and the International Council on Combustion Engines. A bunker supplier in the ARA has been trying to get CNSL to work in fuel oil and gasoil blends for years without a breakthrough. But CNSL is still widely used by some bunker suppliers, who offer it at alluring price levels.
Singapore
Singapore’s B24 UCOME prices are down on the week, but by less than Rotterdam’s B30 prices.
Downward pressures have come from $20-21/mt VLSFO and LSMGO declines, and from a $0.50/mt drop in the freight rate for Chinese UCOME to Singapore. The PRIMA-assessed UCOME FOB China price, meanwhile, has held steady on the week and not impacted the B24 blend prices.
By Erik Hoffmann
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