The U.S. was closed for most of the holiday period, but this did not cause that much distress to ship owners, since most, if not all, ships were booked ahead and only a few started the year in prompt positions.

Fog caused some slight delays in the U.S. Gulf, but cargo cancellations were rare and would have been largely pointless since there was not much around to act as a substitute vessel.

Styrene popped up several times on the transatlantic eastbound route, with 5,000 tons from Houston to Rotterdam fetching low $50s/per metric ton, which is unchanged from December. In fact, all the key routes out of the U.S. were unchanged from last week.

Styrene occurred, too, on the U.S. Gulf-to-Far East service, with some ethanol noted in addition.

It would seem that 7,000 tons of base oils are being worked from the U.S. Gulf to Singapore, and base oils have featured quite significantly to India as well, with some 18,000 tons fixed for early January loading and a further 12,000 tons being studied for late January.

Apart from these, base oils have been quiet on a spot basis out of the U.S. Gulf with just the next delivery to Punta Cardon under discussion, along with a shipment of 4,000 tons from the U.S. Gulf to Brazil, which apparently completed before the end of December in the $70s/t range.

Europe

On the whole, the European coastal market survived the festive season relatively well.

Many ships had already been booked through to the beginning of January anyway, and the extra couple of working days between Christmas and New Years did actually generate some demand, unlike previous years, and very few ships were left idle. The holiday season has not quite finished either, with many offices closed for the Jan. 6 Epiphany holiday, but again, this has not really caused any discomfort for owners. If anything, there have been a number of cargoes that have been unable to secure space and these cargoes are now being circulated, looking for prompt tonnage or the next available ship.

In the Baltic, the water temperatures remain mild, and observers there suggest that it will be unlikely that ice restrictions are imposed this month.

Southbound into the Mediterranean has given steady employment with a reasonably long list of requirements, although base oils are not much evident.

Northbound has a number of large cargoes, including pyrolysis gasoline, ETBE, alkylate and caustic, but again, not much in the way of base oil demand.

However, there have been some base oil movements within the Mediterranean, including a shipment from offshore Kerch to Turkey. Space in the Mediterranean seems to be fairly tight and freight levels are on par with December.

Transatlantic westbound has been quiet. Traders have been wary about taking positions, especially on volatile products such as aromatics, since crude oil prices continue to be weak. Some paraxylene has been talked about, and some sulphuric acid was booked. It is unclear yet if any of the pre-Christmas bright stock requirements were actually booked.

Europe-to-Asia saw a couple of styrene possibilities from both Antwerp-Rotterdam-Amsterdam and the Mediterranean, but otherwise it has just been small parcels of speciality products. Space is available later in January.

A smattering of base oil enquiries have been detected to India and the Middle East Gulf, mostly from the Mediterranean, although at least one order of 6,000 tons was said to have been quoted from Antwerp-Rotterdam-Amsterdam. Tonnage is relatively tight from northwestern Europe, but there are ships with space from the Mediterranean.

Asia

Of all the global markets, Asia has perhaps been the quietest.

Evidence of this can be seen in the ships positions -plenty ships are open in exactly the same place after the holidays as they were before. Rates are also said to be a touch weaker, although of course, we must not forget that bunker costs are barely $300 tons these days for IFO 380 centistoke in Singapore. Smaller ships seemed to have fared better than their larger siblings, with quite a few in the 10,000-20,000 tons deadweight category open within the next 10 days or so.

Some of these larger vessels have been biding their time, trying to secure either palm oils to India and Pakistan, or long-haul chemical parcels to the Middle East Gulf-India, Europe or the Americas. There are opportunities for traders to attempt to ship base oils on all these routes, although owners are generally still quite bullish on their freight ideas. For example, there are several ships with space from Korea-Taiwan to the Middle East Gulf, but for 2,000-3,000 tons of parcels of no-heat base oils, they are still quoting levels in the low-mid $70s/t.

Palm oil rates to India are not encouraging for owners, however, with typically low- $30s/t being done, so a 5,000-ton chunk of base oil from Southeast Asia to the west coast of India could have some appeal if it could be worked in the $40s/t.

The India-Middle East Gulf region itself has been quiet and there have been some prompt open ships.

That said, there have been some prompt cargoes from both India and the Middle East Gulf that have been struggling to secure prompt space. As is often the case, prompt space does not automatically signify lower freights since owners have quite differing ideas as to what they want to do with their ships.

Adrian Brown is a senior market analyst for chemicals and base oils with SSY Shipbrokers, London. Information about SSY can be found atwww.ssyonline.com. Adrian Brown, in the U.K., can be reached atfix@ssychems.comor by phone at +44 1207-507507. In the London office SSYs Panos Giannoulis can be reached atfix@ssychems.comor +44 20 7977 7538 and in Singapore Jordi Maymi at +65 6854 7127.