Economic Slowdown
The Bitumen market was very suspicious about its next movement since it couldn’t decide how to react to the market’s fluctuations. In Singapore and Korea, they tried to keep things almost steady. In the Middle East, the condition was even worse because the region faced sudden dollar exchange volatilities and observed many ups and downs. The rainy weather couldn’t restrict the projects more than before and it is similar to the
Fears of economic turbulence are spreading again in most countries. The UK bank’s action to increase the interest rate last week was a powerful incentive for rising fears. The PMI reports are also fragile and they are making people suspicious about a real recession. Although there are lots of uncertainties, several experts believe that we are just approaching the hard landing of recession. Crude oil fluctuations are in a shadow of doubt as well.
In the Middle East, the new steel drum bitumen is in the range of $ 360 – $ 365 and the bulk bitumen is in the range of $ 271 – $ 276. The bulk of Singapore is volatile in the range of $ 460 – $ 465 and South Korea is currently $ 395 – $ 400.
