SINGAPORE: Asian jet fuel demand is taking a beating from an outbreak of a flu-like virus in China that has led airlines to cancel scores of flights during the peak Lunar New Year travel season.
Jet fuel prices have dropped and refiners’ profits for the product have slumped to the lowest in more than 2½ years, while industry analysts are cutting their 2020 forecasts for jet fuel and overall oil demand.Airlines and passengers are on guard against the respiratory coronavirus that originated in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, so far killing more than 100 people in China and spreading to more than 10 countries, including France, Japan and the United States.