Republished from Undercurrent News, 8 August 2018
Skipjack tuna prices for delivery to Bangkok, Thailand during August are increasing again, after hitting a two year-record low last month, industry sources told Undercurrent News.
“The lowest price recorded was around $1,210 per-metric-ton,” one US-based source told Undercurrent, pointing out that western Pacific Ocean boat owners have “reacted to even lower FOB price demands from traders”.
As a result, “the traders started shorting canneries and talked of a fish shortage, the [price] tendency reversed, and now it’s possible the price may well sail through $1,300/t on its way towards $1,350/t or $1,400/t in the near term”, the US source said.
The skipjack raw material price closed at $1,300/t in July 2018, Thai Union Group pointed out in its quarterly results published on Aug. 6. During the second quarter, the average price was $1,667/t, down 5.4% year but 5.7% up quarter on quarter, the Thai group also said.
Commenting on the price rebound, some sources questioned why “did prices ever get up as high as $1,800/t in April”.
“There is no sense to what the way the market has been moving,” one said. But other sources stressed that the rebound was expected, as prices tend to increase in correspondence of the “veda” closures in the western and central Pacific in July and in the eastern Pacific at the end of July.