Asia's naphtha crack tumbled 10.5 percent to hit a three-month low of $92.03 a tonne on Thursday on ample supplies despite ongoing demand. South Korea's YNCC bought an average of 75,000 tonnes of naphtha for delivery to Yeosu in the second half of February at premiums of about $8 a tonne or slightly higher to Japan quotes cost and freight (C&F). This was the lowest premium YNCC has paid since October 24, when it bought the fuel for delivery in the first half of December.
Taiwan's Formosa has an outstanding tender, due to be awarded on Friday, to buy naphtha for delivery to Mailiao in the second half of February. Traders said Formosa has mostly wrapped up discussions and was expected to pay a premium of about $6 a tonne to its own price formula for the cargoes. This would be the lowest premium it has paid since the end of October, when it bought up to 150,000 tonnes for December 11-25 arrival at Mailiao.
Formosa will resume the use of alternative liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) feedstock to replace a small portion of naphtha after it stopped using the fuel for more than three months because of high prices. Asia's gasoline crack eased by 2 percent to a two-session low of $7.92 a barrel on higher supplies. Singapore's onshore light distillates stocks, which comprise mostly gasoline, edged up 0.55 percent, or 76,000 barrels, to a five-week high of 14 million barrels in the week ended Wednesday.
Some 66,000 tonnes of gasoline came to Singapore from Norway and the United Kingdom in the week ended January 10, the data showed.
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