Gasoline
It was a volatile year in the global gasoline market, with a period of oversupply and
depressed pricing during the first
half of our fiscal year followed by rising prices and volatility from February 2019
onward. The change came as refiners
minimized gasoline yields to rationalize production and was intensified by a
significant number of unplanned refinery outages.
In this rapidly moving market, Trafigura’s global gasoline team was very well
positioned to capture volatile interregional
arbitrage opportunities. Overall gasoline volumes were slightly lower compared to
last year, but margins were better than in 2018.
In 2020, we expect gasoline supplies to remain tight and volatility to be high as
refineries adjust for IMO 2020 and make a
full transition into US Tier 3 Sulphur.