SINGAPORE: Asia's naphtha crack eased 2.3% to reach a fresh 5-1/2 month low of $44.80 a tonne on Friday while the gasoline premium fell 18.5% to a 2-1/2 month low of $1.71 a barrel on ample supplies. Naphtha purchases have been brisk this week but the pace was slowed by the extended shutdowns of two crackers in South Korea due to fire.
One of the units owned by LG Chem shut earlier this month while the other operated by Lotte have been idled since March. The companies have two crackers each. Buyers on Friday included Japan's Idemitsu and Lotte.
Idemitsu paid a discount of about $9 to $10 a tonne to Japan quotes on a cost-and-freight (C&F) basis for naphtha arriving in second-half December in Tokuyama. Lotte paid a discount of around $4.50 a tonne for the fuel scheduled for second-half December arrival, fuelling talks that the petrochemical maker could be restarting the fire-hit cracker next month.
Other buyers this week included Titan, Mitsui Chemicals, Hanwha Total and SK Energy. Kuwait sold 24,000 tonnes of light naphtha for Dec. 11-12 loading at premiums of about $13.50 a tonne to Middle East quotes on a free-on-board (FOB) basis, similar levels to those received for a Nov. 10-11 parcel.
Gasoline stocks held independently at the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage hub surged 15% in the week to Thursday to a three-week high of 1.2 million tonnes (about 10 million barrels), data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global showed.
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