NEW DELHI: Asia’s naphtha markets steadied on Friday after tumbling nearly 20% in the last session on fears of slowing demand due to high prices of the light fuel.

The refining profit margin for naphtha was up 5 cents at $171.70 a tonne.

“We are seeing that in most of the naphtha crackers in Asia, people have just cut down their production or they have restarted annual turnarounds,” said Rajesh Rawat, senior vice president and business head, cracker at Reliance Industries during the Asia Refining and Petrochemical Summit.

Meanwhile, a rise in inventories of lights distillates at Fujairah Oil Industry Zone brought gasoline crack down by $1.06 to $16.16 a barrel.

Fujairah stocks, including gasoline and naphtha, rose 211,000 barrels in the week to March 14, according to industry information service S&P Global Platts.

Mitsui Chemicals on Tuesday said it will shut down its purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plant in Japan in August 2023 amid dwindling demand.

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