Asia Fuel Oil – Pricing Analyst Update – 27–31 July

• Cash differentials for Asia 380cst HSFO averaged around $11/mt over July 27–31, up from the prior week’s premium of around $9.50/mt. On the other hand, Asia 180cst HSFO cash differentials averaged around $9.50/mt over the same period, down from a premium of $11.50/mt the prior week.
• Asia 380cst HSFO outright prices averaged around $531/mt over July 27–31, while Asia 180cst HSFO outright prices averaged around $538.60/mt over the same period, both easing from the prior week’s averages of $555/mt and $565/mt respectively.
• Cash differentials for Asia LSFO averaged around $37/mt over July 27–31, up from the prior week’s average of $29.80/mt. Outright prices averaged around $705/mt over the same period, falling by approximately $20/mt from the prior week.
• The 380cst and 500cst ex-wharf prices averaged around $548/mt and $545/mt respectively over July 27–31, down from the prior week’s averages of $568/mt and $565/mt.
• The market lost momentum: outright prices eased as a temporary halt in US-Iran strikes let participants price in de-escalation, and Asian and European HSFO reversed some gains, yet cash premiums held at multi-week highs on tight prompt supply, market sources said.
• The pause looked fragile: the US halted strikes at Iran’s request but Trump warned they would resume without a new ceasefire, and Hormuz traffic stayed far below normal, under 10 ships a day versus about 100 pre-war. The Houthi threat to Saudi tankers in Bab al-Mandeb kept alive the risk of simultaneous AG and Red Sea disruption, so war-risk premiums persisted, though Brent has since turned higher on renewed escalation.

About the Author
Alex Theo | Head of Pricing Analysts, Sparta Commodities
Alex Theo is a commodity price reporter and pricing analyst with over a decade of experience covering oil markets across the Asia-Pacific region. His expertise spans the full oil barrel – heavy distillates, middle distillates, and light distillates – as well as iron ore markets across APAC. Alex now leads the pricing analyst team at Sparta, working alongside Commodity Owners to deliver independent, unbrokered commodity price assessments across key benchmarks.

Connect: LinkedIn

About Sparta
Founded in 2020, Sparta made waves in the commodity analytics space in March 2022 when it secured a $6m series A investment from Singular. This success then later snowballed into a further $17.5 million in a series A funding round led by the technology venture capital firm FirstMark, with participation from existing shareholder, Singular.

The platform, created by former traders Miles Moseley and Felipe Elink Schuurman, is designed to answer a common problem shared by most traders: 90% of pricing data required to make trading decisions is kept in silos and shared manually by voice, email, or chat.

Sparta breaks these existing data silos and combines the physical and paper markets to provide traders with live access to global raw prices, from futures and swaps to forward freight and physical premiums. We work with clients globally, including Philips 66, Chevron, Trafigura, Equinor and more.