S&P Global Platts updated estimate of US Gulf Coast distillate flows to Europe and North Africa for December arrivals is 940,000 mt to date, which compares with a total of 1.04 million mt in November, according to data from cFlow, Platts trade flow software.
Six new fixtures appeared on the trans-Atlantic route since the most recent estimate was published last week, bringing the number of vessels to discharge in December to 21. Market participants continued to report poor arbitrage economics on the USGC-Europe route this week however, therefore limiting the inflow of product in the region.
"It's been fairly quiet I have to say, no massive changes. I'm not really seeing any destocking or anything like this [and] still no US arb," a source said of the European diesel market.
As for the relative shares of the two European diesel markets -- Northwest Europe and the Mediterranean -- the former is the destination of 15 cargoes, amounting to 660,000 mt of product, leaving the Mediterranean with six cargoes, or 280,000 mt, according to the estimate. France and the Netherlands should receive five cargoes each and Belgium three.
The volume estimate is based on the size of each ship and standard diesel export sizes from the US to Europe.
