Key Numbers

摘要

As shown in the table above, oil prices started to collapse from mid-July and had already lost a third of their value by the beginning of the last quarter. Prices then continued to fall, with crude oil coming further down from USD 100/bbl, the level at the beginning of 2008, to under USD33/bbl in the run-up to Christmas. However, as the year closed, the market began to rebound. Up to the end of December, it was demand destruction that powered the price falls, fuelled by gloomy forecasts of global economic growth. The threat to natural gas supplies passing through the Ukraine from Russia to the EU, and OPEC's decision to cut production by a total of 2.2 million barrels per day, about 3 of total global oil demand, then boosted crude prices back above USD45/bbl as 2009 started. The effect of all the earlier activity brought the Cockett Bunker Price Index down by over 40 from its peak of over 5,000 in July to 2,000 points at the year end. In Rotterdam, 380cSt bunker prices fell from over USD500/mt at the beginning of October to under USD250/tonne at the start of November and then on to USD190/tonne in early December. By the end of the year, 380cSt had dropped even further, to USD 165/tonne, down by two-thirds in the quarter. Interestingly, ocean carriers still carried on sailing their ships at reduced speed, suggesting that the need to hide surplus vessel capacity has become the overriding factor.