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SThe major sources of imports come from Canada,
Virgin Islands and Western Europe, all of which should be able to meet our
sulfur specifications, but some changes in the supply sources are occurring
this year.
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SBrazil and Other Latin America volume showed
declines this year, as was expected from
the sulfur regulation changes.
Eastern Europe is hard to interpret.
It was down this year, which may reflect lack of low sulfur product,
but this region should be getting closer to E.U. specifications over time.
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SAs some regions fell back, Western Europe
volumes to the United States increased.
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SEarly in the year, imports were behind last
year’s volumes, but strong summer imports made up the gap. We don’t know if the early weakness was due
mainly to specification issues or to the strong world demand increasing
competition for available imports and driving prices to less attractive
levels.
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