Ahead of an anticipated fall in incoming volumes of low sulfur fuel oil from the Americas into Singapore in August, cargo imports fell 72% to 106,802 mt, mostly due to a 38.80% decline in cargo from Brazil to 63,872 mt, and a 100% fall in volumes from Mexico.

Term contracts for balance-July dates are currently being inked at premiums of $2.50-$2.75/mt, while trades for July supply were concluded in June at a premium of around $1/mt, traders said.

The world fifth-biggest crude importer received 80.165 million barrels, or 2.67 million b/d, in June, up 7.4% from 74.659 million barrels a year earlier, showed latest data from state-run Korea National Oil Corp.

Until May, South Korea had routinely exported around 20 Medium Range cargoes/month of LCO to China, where LCO had been used as an alternative to gasoil in the mining, industrial, agricultural, construction and fishing sectors.

The overall demand has improved in July compared with June, and bunker demand in the third quarter should outstrip a relatively lackluster second quarter, a trader in Fujairah said.

Demand has ticked up a bit into Western Africa and other places for HSFO, one trader said.

This comes on the back of a four-day closure at the ports in Shanghai, after Typhoon In-Fa made landfall in east China Zhejiang Province.

Taylor and UK Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Kwasi Kwarteng, signed a letter of intent focused on a variety of emerging technologies on July 29.