Import parity for base oils SN150 and SN500 still bottoms out on Brent and the exchange rate. With Brent at $110.04 and USD/CNY at 6.6613, the USD-denominated landed cost sits below the combination of a higher Brent and a weaker yuan a month ago, and the CNY translation makes the drop sharper. Independently-run blenders and lubricant plants see their procurement window open.

The 100-tonne SN150/SN500 trial order from US buyer Botavia Energy, routed through Long Beach, is SNSUC's first lubricant-grade shipment stretching from Asia-Pacific into North America. The volume is small, but it proves the grade, the documentation and the trans-Pacific logistics; the tonnage-scale contract comes after that.

The thirteen-category live board now carries base oils too. These grades used to be tracked on monthly bulletins; now tag, landed cost and inventory sit on one screen, so a trader's pricing and a plant's cost lock happen on the same table instead of across three systems.