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SINGAPORE: Asia's naphtha crack rebounded marginally from a 2-1/2 week low to $81.68 a tonne on Friday, with traders saying that the value has fallen too much overnight given that fundamentals have not changed dramatically.
"The only thing dragging naphtha down is gasoline," a Singapore-based industry source said.
Demand for naphtha from the petrochemical industry was healthy, though South Korea buyers have mostly completed building stocks for the second half of May.
Most crackers in Asia are still running at high rates because of strong demand for plastics.
Cargoes arriving in Asia next month from the West were still seen at moderately low levels of about 1.3 million tonnes versus a monthly average of 1.8 million tonnes for first quarter of this year.
GASOLINE RECOVERS
Asia's gasoline crack edged up 3 percent to reach $9.29 a barrel after hitting a one-month low in the previous session.
Demand for cargoes lifting in April from Singapore/Malaysia remained strong but supplies were ample in regions of Singapore, Europe and the United States. (See Singapore cash deals below)
Gasoline stocks held in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) hub, for instance, rose 12 percent in the week to Thursday to almost 1.3 million tonnes, Dutch consultancy PJK International said. This followed high stock levels seen in Singapore.
Although Singapore's weekly light distillates stocks eased in the week to April 6, average stockpiles held in onshore tanks since January 2016 to April 6, at 14.5 million barrels, were 9.4 percent higher than the average of 13.25 million barrels for the same period last year, official data showed.
U.S gasoline stocks were also up, having risen last week by 1.4 million barrels, data from the Energy Information Administration showed.
This contrasted with initial expectations for a drop of 1 million barrels.
SINGAPORE CASH DEALS: There were four deals on gasoline, bringing total transaction volumes for April lifting from Singapore/Malaysia to about 3.8 million barrels, the highest monthly volume this year, Reuters data showed.
All four gasoline cargoes were bought by Unipec, which has purchased a total of 650,000 barrels since April 1.
The Chinese trader bought two 92-octane cargoes from Total, one for April 23-27 loading at $49.90 a barrel and another for April 28 to May 2 loading at $50 a barrel.
It bought a 92-octane cargo from PetroChina for April 24-28 loading at $49.90 and another of the same grade for April 26-30 from Gunvor at $50 a barrel.
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