The crude oil price has been rising ever since December last year and of course was accelerated by the invasion of Ukraine. Since the invasion, it’s continued to march from $90 barrel all the way up to a peak of $120 a barrel in mid June. Although the price has fluctuated, it’s been following the same linear upward curve, but the trend has broken and the price has fallen back to about $100 per barrel.
May has been a much stronger month gaining 6% with all areas growing except for vegetable oil which understandably has been declining due to the war in Ukraine. Overall crude oil gained 9 million tonnes in May. These were coming from outside Asia. However, Chinese crude imports rose by 1 million tonnes in May.