The flow of Western fuel oil cargoes to East Asia in April is expected to climb to its highest monthly level for over a year.

Reports say some 3.5 million metric tonnes (mt) of product have already been booked, the highest volume since March 2007.

"April looks like it's going to be the highest supply month for a while, on the back of two heavy months," said a Singapore-based trader quoted by Reuters.

"Whether the market can take the huge inflows will depend on how much China actually buys at the time,"

February and March fuel oil inflows have already been running at 10-month highs at around 2.9-3.0 million mt.

Sources say most of the March and April inflows are of high-density, high-viscosity cargoes that will need to be blended before they can be sold into the Chinese utility or Singapore bunker markets.

"There is a shortage of quality in the market," said another treader quoted by Reuters.

"There's a lot of cargoes but not enough cutters to blend them.  We could have a very odd situation where oil is plentiful but the market is tight."

Meanwhile, Asian fuel oil cargo prices for 180 centistoke (cst) product grade fell by $14.15 per metric tonne (pmt) to $493.55 on Wednesday.

Singapore bunker prices crashed on Wednesday against a background of weak demand.  Bunkerworld prices showed 380 cst bunker product at $478 pmt, down $13 on Tuesday's prices.