Asia's gasoline crack was at a five-session high of $9.00 a barrel on Wednesday, supported by cash trades in the Singapore market where transactions totalled 350,000 barrels, the highest daily volume since October 31. A total of seven cargoes, each at 50,000 barrels, had changed hands, and Hin Leong had snapped up six of them.
The reasons behind Hin Leong's brisk demand were not immediately clear, traders said, but the Singapore trader who supplies gasoline to Vietnam among other markets, has recently played a dominant role in the gasoil cash market. Hin Leong was initially seen buying up huge amounts of gasoil between September and November but it turned seller in December following the oil price spike.
"I don't think Hin Leong's gasoline purchases today are related to its recent gasoil activities. Let's see if the gasoline spree is once-off," said a Singapore-based trader. Chinese trader Unipec has an outstanding tender to sell gasoline for first-half 2017 delivery from its Yanbu refinery in Saudi Arabia. The tender has closed but has yet to be officially awarded.
Earlier, Sinochem sealed a 2017 term deal with Trafigura and Gunvor at a premium of about 25 cents a barrel to Singapore quotes on a free-on-board (FOB) basis, traders said. Gunvor may be lifting a cargo every quarter next year from Quanzhou, while Trafigura is to load a cargo every month from the same port but this could not be directly confirmed as buyers and sellers do not comment on their deals. Asia's naphtha crack edged up 0.4 percent to $57 a tonne after falling to a near seven-week low in the previous session as ample supplies dragged.
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