ARA: lift from logistics

Operators at the big ARA terminals are benefiting from long-distance trade and new products

Independent storage operators in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) area are seeing strong growth in business and they claim it is structural. Regional product imbalances are growing – although at one time they were forecast to decrease as refinery capacity became more flexible. Accordingly, trading opportunities result. Even better, the trade is physical – movement of products through tanks, from and to vessels. Because of the way storage fees are structured, physical operations benefit the operators much more than contango-trading, in which product is held in-tank in the hope of a price rise. Physical operations are also likely to be long-term, while contangoes can evaporate. Statistics