Malaysia is extending its national Covid-19 lockdown by two weeks from today until 28 June as the country's daily infections continue to exceed 5,000.
Standard operating procedures for every manufacturing, business and industrial activity remain as previously announced, defence minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said. Malaysia recorded 662,457 cases and 3,968 deaths as of today, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, up from 565,533 cases and 2,729 deaths on 31 May, a day before the first phase of the total lockdown came into force.
The initial two-week lockdown from 1 June, which shut almost all economic and social sectors in the resource-rich nation, affected commodity markets from bitumen to oil products.
Bitumen demand in Malaysia remains weak with the lockdown measures, with most road projects yet to resume. Gasoline refining margins — the premium of the Argus 92R gasoline price to Ice Brent crude — have been under pressure since late May as renewed lockdowns in Malaysia, as well as in Vietnam, hit demand.
Malaysian petrochemical producer Lotte Titan has postponed a scheduled turnaround at its 285,000 t/yr No.1 naphtha-fed cracker in Pasir Gudang, Johor to early August because of the restrictions. It made the decision after considering potential delays to obtaining approvals for contractors to carry out the maintenance during the country's total lockdown.
But the bunker fuel market saw no significant pressure on demand from Malaysia's initial two-week lockdown. But any decision to extend the curbs could shift some bunker fuel demand to Singapore, market participants said earlier this month.
