C1 (Shanghai)--03/08/2010----Some large-scale trading sources in North China said they would raise prices of Russian low-viscosity base oils to above Yuan 8,000/mt and lift that of the high-viscosity grades to above Yuan 8,400/mt this week, C1's survey found.
The move of these traders may come on anticipations of higher base oils demand from domestic lubricants plants, and follow recent gains on Russia base oil market, which has climbed up by US$45-70/mt since early March.
In view of tightening base oils resource in China, these traders were not keen on sales after the Chinese Spring Festival holiday (Feb 13-19), although their base oils stocks were piling high.
Some lubricants plants in North and Northeast China pointed out they have to purchase Russian base oils to replace their depleting stocks of homemade Group I materials after Sinopec and PetroChina began controlling supply from last December. However, some industry sources reckoned the above traders may be in a dilemma whether to keep their prices firm or not in the near future, given that the planned markups would slow down sales and add to the stock pressure.
