SMB cuts Abidjan bitumen refinery output by a third

Ivory Coast bitumen producer SMB has cut production at its 520,000 t/yr (10,500 b/d) Abidjan refinery by a third in response to a dramatic fall in construction activity and bitumen import requirements across west Africa.

The demand slide, caused by a series of strict lockdown measures imposed by governments across the region as they combat the Covid-19 pandemic, has slowed SMB's export cargo business to west African markets — including Ghana and Cameroon — to a crawl. Just two or three 5,000t cargoes will have been exported from Abidjan this month, with a further drop anticipated next month.

The Nigerian lockdown has had the biggest single regional impact on bitumen demand in west Africa. President Muhammadu Buhari recently extended the lockdown in the three key states of Lagos, Ogun and Abuja by two weeks to 27 April, halting most road project work in the 300,000 t/yr bitumen market, all of which is imported.

Ivory Coast itself, which last year consumed around 100,000t of bitumen with numerous road and highway projects, is one of the few countries in west Africa where construction work has been largely unrestricted by any government lockdown measures, providing a sizeable outlet for SMB's bitumen volumes.

The refiner usually imports a 700,000-1mn bl cargo of bitumen-rich Latin American crude every two months, with Colombian Castillathe usual grade it has taken over the past year. But the interval between those cargo imports is now around three months, with the Ivory Coast refiner now looking to take cargoes towards the lower end of that size range.

By Keyvan Hedvat

source: Argus Media