Asia's naphtha crack fell 14.2 percent on Thursday, its largest percentage fall since September 30, to reach its lowest in two months at $66.85 a tonne as ample supplies and a spike in oil prices weighed. The weak fundamentals were reflected in a spot deal where South Korea's Lotte Chemical had picked up naphtha for first-half January delivery at a discount of $2.00 to $2.50 a tonne to Japan quotes on a cost-and-freight (C&F) basis.
This sharply contrasted the premium of $1.00 to $1.50 Lotte Chemical had paid on November 23 for cargoes delivering in the same period. "I don't see any bull factors in the naphtha market," said a Singapore-based industry source. European cargoes to Asia next month at about 1.3 to 1.4 million tonnes were almost double the volumes for November, traders said.
Similar to naphtha, Asia's gasoline tumbled 16 percent to reach its lowest since October 13 at $7.78 a barrel. Stocks were high and Chinese supplies remained ample. The Singapore onshore light distillates stocks jumped 10 percent, or nearly 1.2 million barrels, to hit a three-month high of about 13 million barrels in the week to November 30, official data showed.
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