Asian Jet Fuel Bears the Brunt of the New Virus Strain, as Air Travel Fears Renewed Bans

Jet Fuel cracks across Asia slipped to their lowest over a month on Wednesday weighed under reimposition of air travel restrictions as economies take preventive measures to contain the spreading of a new, highly contagious strain of the coronavirus.

According to aviation data revealed by the Official Airline Guide (OAG), the number of scheduled flights slipped globally to 409,000, lower almost by 43.5% on y-o-y basis

during the week starting 4^th January compared with the figure of 424,000 reported last week. Key tourism markets of the region-Australia, Japan, Indonesia, and Thailand have deaccelerated in their year-over-year position this week as per the OAG data.

Scheduled flights in Japan showed a reduction by 36.4% year-on-year this week compared with a 35.4% drop observed in December, while flights landed in South Korea were 50.3% lesser from the last year’s figure, the firm’s data showed. Refining margins, also known as the Jet Fuel crack spreads, dropped to their lowest since Nov.30 to USD 3.54 per barrel, over Dubai crude on Wednesday.

Jet Fuel stocks in Singapore are being offered at double-digit discounts to recoup the losses. The news comes at a time when crude oil is swinging between gains and losses as the market outlook is turning positive with the roll-out of coronavirus vaccines while toughening restrictions across Europe and the US is still weighing over the overall recovery.

Against odds, Indian firm, Indian Oil Corp. Ltd.’s (IOC’s) jet fuel business has shown a recovery up to 60 per cent, with anticipations that domestic sales would touch full capacity by March this year amid vaccine optimism. The firm’s senior official expressed hopes that the domestic sector will be fully recovered by the end of March 2021 while the international sector may take longer time than expected time.

As per ChemAnalyst,” The emergence of new strain has pushed the global Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) market again into doldrums until the second half of 2021. Jet fuel demand in Asia is estimated at 1.7 million bpd in 2021, much lower than observed in 2019. Pressure over Jet Fuel refining margins is likely to keep the profits of manufacturers exceptionally hurt as of now."