US base oils exports to Latin America edged down to a ten-month low in November amid a dip in shipments to Brazil.
Shipments rose to most other key outlets like Argentina, Chile and Peru.
The size of the drop in total shipments was also smaller than the drop in the US’ total base oils exports in November and much smaller than the fall in US shipments to Europe.
The steadier flows moved to a region where lube demand was slowing. But the pace of the slowdown was smaller than the drop in demand in other markets.
The shipments also coincided with tighter supply in Asia-Pacific that slowed the flow of arbitrage shipments from that region to Latin America.
The slowdown in arbitrage shipments and firm prices relative to other regions boosted the attraction of moving more supplies to Latin America.
At the same time, the relatively low volume of US shipments to Latin America limited the risk of a large build-up of surplus supplies that buyers carried into the start of this year.
US base oils exports to Latin America, excluding Mexico, came to 393,120bl (55,370t) in November, government data showed.
The volume fell from around 408,000bl the previous month to the lowest since last January.
The fall in shipments mostly reflected a drop in exports to Brazil to little more than 66,000bl. The volume fell from more than 200,000bl in October to the lowest since May 2020.
The slowdown in exports helped to reverse signs of a build-up in surplus supplies in Brazil during the final months of the year.
US base oils exports to Chile by contrast rose to an eight-month high of more than 78,000bl.
The rise in shipments followed a slowdown in Chile’s October base oils imports to an eight-month low.
A pick-up in cargoes from Asia to Chile last year was also much smaller than the flow of shipments to other outlets like Argentina. The trend left the country more reliant on supplies from the US.
