Asian Train Wreck du jour:
JAPANESE PRODUCT INVENTORIES CLOSE TO HISTORIC LOWS 10-15-2004
According to the latest figures released by the Petroleum Authority of Japan, stocks of kerosene at the end of last week were 26.4 million barrels, 18% lower than a year ago, and close to the historic low of 25.2 million barrels, set in 2002. Last week Japanese refineries were operating at 77.5% of capacity, 2% less than in the previous week. As seasonal demand for products grows, Japanese demand for product imports may increase to replace the shortfall from refinery production, causing upward pressure in the short term on freight rates for clean tonnage from the MEG and SE Asia.
Look how stressed the energy sector is, record high tanker rates (page 5), as the chairs on the deck of the Titanic get reshuffled. A whole month of declining distillate, residual fuel, and heating oil inventory (pages 3-4), and during the shoulder months when they normally get good builds.
beacon1.rjf.com
Early wintery blast in mid-October just to make things even more interesting:
hurricane.accuweather.com
But wasn't the Wiazrd Of Oz Alan Greenspan reassuring today, "forward futures five years hence are cheap, blah, blah, blah". It's called the shorage contango Easy, obviously a clue he doesn't have any idea what he's talking about. Perhaps someone could send him the Chicago Fed's primer on the topic, never too late to learn, see page 13 in particular:
chicagofed.org |
