Today's FX board tilted one way: the dollar fell across the board against the yuan at 6.6558 (minus 0.0631), the yen at 157.53 (minus 0.0825) and the won at 1333.08 (minus 0.4904), while the euro also slipped to 1.1158 against the dollar. A synchronized yuan, yen and won strengthening means the same Brent cargo costs less in local currency to settle this week than last.

Operationally, a transshipment intermediary sits between two external legs: cargo is priced in dollars, but domestic storage, customs and refiner purchases mostly run in yuan. A weaker dollar lifts the yuan book value of cargo waiting in bonded tanks, marking paper gains, while the competitiveness of CFR quotes to Japanese and Korean customers priced in their currencies slips. Today we reworked the FX tickets on three cargoes in transit and decided between forward locks and spot settlement rather than crowding the month-end flattening window.