It is nearly the first time that the Middle East is observing a gap of 45 US dollars on the offers of bitumen.Any type of bitumen, at any rate, was purchased by Indians and even other importers of various countries. Based on this situation, it can be mentioned that: Some certain road construction projects are under process in different countries and some specific grades of bitumen or brands are required by the buyers. That is why they are ready to buy bitumen at high rates.
The chart of Brent oil and WTI is still not promising technically. Brent closed at $72.05 and WTI closed at $70.79 on Friday, June 11. As stated before, they are moving in a channel for about 7 months though could not rise above the midline yet. The price movement has not been strong enough.Oil price has two possible scenarios, including the upward trend with a 65% possibility of reaching higher than 70 US dollar per barrel and a downward trend to reach less than 70 US dollar per barrel. However, both can be a sign of a jump in bitumen price from suppliers’ sides. Goldman Sachs $80 crude outlook is still valid according to the reports by Reuters. However, they expect it to happen by the third quarter of the year instead of March. The anticipated vaccine-driven demand means a sudden extreme boost in the market. The change will have some consequences at the time, including refineries production plans and political confrontation. US dollar was rallying last week and grew nearly up to 1%. We can expect more growth during the week because of the financial reports and market sentiments.
On Monday, we may see a positive market for the dollar, however, we shall see new USD financial reports on Tuesday and Wednesday. If Dollar gets stronger during the week and stocks fall, oil can have some negative days. Petrochemical demand was rising as well during the week. Strong LNG demand in China was only an example. India also seems to overcome the covid crisis gradually since the oil product demand is rising from the country’s traders.In April 2021, the imported quantity of bitumen in India was 310,000 MT and a drop of 53,000 MT was observed.On the whole, it can be concluded that the present market is confusing and the status of supply and demand is not clear.