SINGAPORE: Asia's naphtha crack edged up 55 cents to reach a two-session high of $23.43 a tonne but the crack value remained negative as high supplies dragged.
But some traders were hoping that with some crackers returning from maintenance this month and next, demand for feedstock naphtha could improve.
However, South Korea's SK Energy and Japan's Idemitsu will start their cracker maintenance next month. Taiwan's CPC will also shut a cracker for maintenance in the fourth quarter.
In the meantime, Singapore's Petrochemical Corporation of Singapore (PCS) has restarted its 635,000 tonnes per year (tpy) naphtha cracker following a planned shutdown on July 14.
The cracker is now producing on-specification ethylene after restarting on Aug. 18, traders said.
TENDERS: Bangladesh Petroleum Corp (BPC) was looking to sell 170,000 barrels of naphtha for Sept. 28-30 loading from Chittagong through a tender closing on Sept. 5.
Indian refiners on the other hand have at least three outstanding tenders to sell up to 135,000 tonnes of naphtha for September loading from various ports including Mumbai, Kochi, New Mangalore and Vadinar.
GASOLINE NEARS 8-WEEK HIGH
Asia's gasoline rose 24 cents to reach a nearly eight-week high of $4.89 a barrel.
Although Chinese gasoline exports were still at massive levels of 970,000 tonnes in July compared with a monthly average of 670,000 tonnes for the first five months of this year, traders said the volume has at least temporarily came down from a record high of 1.1 million tonnes in June.
SINGAPORE CASH DEALS: Four gasoline trades were done, the highest number of transactions in a single session since Aug. 10.
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