The CFR premium to the front-month propane Contract Price swap for propane cargoes deliverable along the Singapore-Japan route 30-45 days forward rose to a 19-week high of $88/mt Thursday.
The last time that Asia CFR propane premium settled any higher, was on March 3, when it touched a historical high of $97/mt, Platts data shows.
Market sources attribute the recent surge to a dearth of product loading from the Middle East for August.
"Yes, the market is looking very tight," said a Madrid-based trader.
"It certainly looks that way," said another London-based trader.
Trade sources have previously said that Saudi Aramco had sold at least 352,000 mt of spot LPG in eight 44,000 mt cargoes for July loading.
The Middle Eastern oil company, however, has so far sold only 132,000 mt of product in three 44,000 mt cargoes for August.
Iran's Petrochemical Commercial Company had sold at least 220,000 mt of LPG in five 44,000 mt cargoes for July loading, but just one 44,000 mt cargo so far for August, said trade sources.
"A scheduled 40-day maintenance at Qatargas LNG train 5 should curb spot availability ex-Qatar for September," UK-based shipbroker Gibson said in a report Friday.
Tasweeq, which sells an average of 19 or 20 full cargoes every month on both term and spot basis, has advanced at least three of its August loading cargoes to July, said trade sources.
"It's Ramadan season right now and I think [producers] don't want to do much...so not much to sell," said a Tokyo-based trader.
Trade sources said Wednesday that they had heard Trafigura had sold Tuesday 22,000 mt of second-half August delivery propane to Statoil at a premium in the low $80s/mt -- an indication that the CFR premium for frontline propane cargoes was clawing its way up.
Traders said Thursday that Petredec was heard to have sold Wednesday a similar-sized H2 August propane cargo to Sumitomo, at a premium of $91/mt to Aramco's August propane CP.
