The euro firmed on both legs today: EUR/CNY closed at 7.6060, up 0.0631 from yesterday, and EUR/USD at 1.1347, up 0.0617. USD/CNY eased to 6.7031 as the yuan held firm against the dollar.

For SNSUC's transfer trades, cargoes priced in euro (some North Sea and West Africa long-haul contracts) land at price × euro rate × freight. Every 1% the euro gains adds 1% to the RMB payable on the same lot. On a 100,000-ton replacement cargo, today's move lifts arrival cost by roughly 6–8 million yuan versus last week.

The fix is in the settlement rail. CIPS euro direct clearing cuts the FX leak from 0.3–0.5pp at correspondent banks to under 0.1pp; the saved spread on one cargo covers half its freight insurance. We route any euro-leg exposure longer than three days through CIPS and lock EUR/CNY.

One caveat: EUR/USD and EUR/CNY rising together is usually the mirror of broad dollar weakness. Locking EUR/CNY alone leaves the dollar leg open, so hedge both sides.