The front-month fuel oil contract settled at CNY 4,386/t, up 2.19% on the day; bitumen closed at CNY 5,217/t, up 0.58%. The spread between the two inverted to -CNY 831/t (bitumen now at a premium to fuel oil), narrowing slightly from an early-month extreme near -CNY 900/t.

High-sulfur fuel oil (HSFO) finds its marginal buyer in bunker blending and independent-refinery upgrading; the Singapore 380CST crack tightened through the maintenance season and pulled the domestic contract higher. Bitumen is driven by the September-October road-construction window, with social inventories drawing down and the physical-to-futures basis firming.

For the operator: when bitumen's premium over fuel oil widens, Shandong independents cut coker and residual-fuel output and push more barrels into bitumen; a narrowing spread reverses the flow. At -CNY 831/t the market still sits in bitumen-premium territory, so bitumen yield stays high while tighter fuel oil supply underpins price.

From the transshipment desk: both fuel oil and bitumen are live among SNSUC's 13 categories, and the spread signal maps straight onto listing quotes and inventory turn days - the most watched in-house reference pair on the pricing desk.