How this market
actually works.
Not news, and not a running commentary on prices. These are the things we end up explaining in almost every negotiation — written down once, so the people we deal with can arrive already knowing them.
What “EN 590 10 ppm” actually pins down
The sulphur figure is the one everybody quotes and the one that settles the least. Cold-flow behaviour, biodiesel content and density are all still open — and each of them can make a cargo unusable in the destination market.
Read →FOB, CFR, CIF — who carries what
Three letters decide who pays for freight, who insures the cargo and, separately from both, who is holding the risk when something goes wrong mid-voyage. The last one is where most misunderstandings sit.
Read →How independent inspection settles quality and quantity
Neither the seller’s figures nor the buyer’s decide what was delivered. A third party measures, samples and certifies — and under most contracts their certificate is the one the invoice follows.
Read →Telling a real counterparty from a paper one
This market carries a long tail of offers for cargoes that do not exist. The patterns repeat, they are recognisable, and the checks that expose them take about an afternoon. Apply them to us as well.
Read →Written to stay true
A trading company that publishes market commentary has to keep publishing it. When that stops — and it usually does — the newest item on the page slowly becomes evidence that nobody is home.
So these are deliberately not news. Specifications, Incoterms, inspection practice and the mechanics of a fraudulent offer do not change from quarter to quarter. What is written here is meant to be as accurate in five years as it is today, which is also why none of it carries a date.
For anything that genuinely is time-sensitive — a price, an availability, a laycan — speak to the desk. That is what it is there for.
Have a requirement or a cargo to place?
Tell us the product, the volume and the destination market. We will come back with a clear, documented path to close.