Asian naphtha hits two-week low on supply pressure

Asia's naphtha crack extended losses to reach a two-week low of $122.75 a tonne on Thursday as heavier volumes were seen arriving in December from the West versus November, traders said. Cargoes arriving in Asia next month are seen close to 1.5 million tonnes versus about 1.3 to 1.4 million tonnes for November arrival. "December is over-booked. Perhaps bad weather in Europe could delay the arriving time of the December cargoes," said a trader.
Buyers in the meantime continued to pick up cargoes for first-half January. South Korea's Hanwha Total paid about $11 a tonne premium to Japan quotes on a cost-and-freight (C&F) basis, traders said, similar to the level GS Caltex paid on Wednesday. Indonesian Pertamina, Asia's top gasoline importer, issued a tender to buy 98-octane gasoline for either first-quarter or first-half 2018 delivery through a tender closing on November 22.
Singapore's onshore light distillates, which comprise mostly gasoline and blending components for petrol, rose about 8.6 percent, or 915,000 barrels, to a four-week high of 11.6 million barrels in the week to November 15, official data showed. About 60,000 tonnes of gasoline from the United Kingdom and 37,000 tonnes from Iran were shipped to Singapore in the week ended Wednesday, the data showed.
The higher inventories in Singapore mirrored the trend in the US where its gasoline stocks USOILG=ECI rose last week by 894,000 barrels, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 919,000-barrel drop, EIA data showed. Total SA plans to restart next week the gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracking unit (FCCU) at its 225,500-barrel-per-day (bpd) Port Arthur, Texas, refinery after completing an overhaul.
LyondellBasell Industries LYB.N plans to begin restarting the large crude distillation unit (CDU) at its 263,776 barrel-per-day Houston refinery by late Friday. China's gasoline production rose 3.7 percent from a year ago to 11.66 million tonnes in October, highest since December 2014 when the statistics bureau starting publishing the data. China will be raising its retail gasoline prices of gasoline by 265 yuan ($39.96) per tonne from Friday.