Today EUR/CNY is 7.5406 and EUR/USD is 1.1253; multiplying them gives 7.546, against the direct quote of 7.5406 — a 54-pip gap from the interbank spread between EUR/CNY and EUR/USD, which is normal. For desks moving European barrels (Bonny Light, West African light), this means they can quote and collect in euros without first converting to dollars and then to yuan.

The skipped dollar conversion is real money. On a 1-million-barrel euro-denominated cargo, a dollar bridge charges two spreads plus two fees; CIPS euro direct clearing passes EUR to CNY only once, cutting the desk's exposure from two legs — USD and EUR — down to one. With EUR/USD at 1.1253 and volatility rising, one fewer leg means one less revaluation risk.

In practice, euro settlement requires locking the bill-of-lading date, the letter-of-credit date and the collection date into the same FX window. At EUR/CNY 7.5406, up slightly from 7.5243 at the start of the month, the euro cargo's local-currency CIF cost edges up, but the desk is spared the dollar leg's overnight jumps, so net transshipment margin is more predictable. SNSUC defaults European and North Sea grades to the euro direct-clearing route.