LONDON: Northwest European gasoline margins fell sharply on Wednesday as slowing overseas demand outweighed supply disruptions in France, where strikes against a new labour are intensifying.
France's hardline CGT union members voted on a rolling strike at all of France's 19 nuclear plants starting on the evening of June 1.
Production at four out of Total's five French refineries has been halted by a rolling nationwide strike, leaving just three refineries running in the country. * But traders said a slowdown in gasoline exports to West Africa and the United States are weighing on the market, and keeping European stocks high.
In Asia, gasoline floating storage economics weakened, and the number of tankers holding the motor fuel offshore Singapore and Malaysia had dwindled.
China could approve more crude import quotas for independent refiners that will bring the total volume to close to 2 million bpd by the end of the year, boosting the country's petroleum product output.
China exported a monthly average of about 643,000 tonnes of gasoline from January to April this year, up nearly 54 percent from last year's figure.
China is also planning changes that would allow private companies to build and operate some of its strategic petroleum reserve (SPR), while also requiring companies to maintain compulsory inventories, a move likely to lead to lower oil product exports.
Turkish refiner Tupras issued a tender to sell a gasoline cargo loading on June 23-25, according to traders. BP won a previous tender for a cargo loading June 3-6, traders said.
GASOLINE
Gunvor sold to Rolympus two eurobob barges during the late afternoon window at $517 a tonne fob ARA.
About 10,000 tonnes of eurobob barges traded throughout the day at $509-$514 a tonne fob Amsterdam-Rotterdam, down from $520-$522 a tonne on Tuesday.
BP and Cargill sold to Shell, Trafigura, Rolympus, Mabanaft and Total.
Koch sold to Total two premium unleaded gasoline barges at $526 a tonne fob ARA, compared with bid and offer discussions at$534-$534.75 a tonne on Tuesday.
The June swap stood at $523 a tonne at the close, down from $529 a tonne the previous day.
Gasoline barge refining margins fell to $12.55 a barrel from $13.95 on Tuesday. * Brent crude oil futures were down 24 cents at $49.65 a barrel at 1712 GMT.
US July RBOB gasoline was down 0.25 percent at $1.6093 a gallon.
The US gasoline crack was trading at $18.70 a barrel, lower than the day earlier.
NAPHTHA
Glencore sold a cargo of naphtha to BASF at $416.50 a tonne cif NWE and Litasco sold a cargo to Koch at $414 a tonne.
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