Today the FX board is as busy as crude. The dollar eased broadly, but the direction is not uniform across currencies: the RMB reached 6.6675, up 255 pips against the dollar and the firmest Asian currency of the day, while the yen weakened to 157.7 and the won slipped marginally to 1325.9. Three lines, three paths.

For transshipment, this means landed cost in local currency cannot be run off a single rate. A stronger RMB cheapens the RMB equivalent of dollar cargoes, helping domestic refiners who settle in RMB; a weaker yen raises the dollar-crude cost for Japanese buyers, who may step back on demand; the won's sideways move leaves Korean refiners' landed cost roughly unchanged.

On the euro, EUR/USD at 1.1147 and EUR/CNY at 7.4301 both soften, suggesting the dollar's retreat comes from broad pressure against non-US currencies rather than a single Asian factor. Operators running cross-continent arbitrage should lock USD cargoes, local-currency freight and discharge-port duties separately, not shortcut with cross rates.

Practical note: for enquiries opened this week, write the FX layer of the quote as spot on lock date ±1% band instead of a fixed number, and with the RMB firming, use near-leg settlement to thicken the safety margin on landed cost.