SINGAPORE: Asia’s naphtha crack fell for the sixth straight session to a five-month low of $51.60 a tonne on Wednesday, hit hard by the shutdown of crackers in South Korea.
Lotte Chemical and LG Chem have each shut a cracker since March and November, respectively, because of fires.
YNCC has a cracker in maintenance mode until December.
The outages come at a time when East-bound cargoes for November arrival are at their highest since June.
Buyers Mitsui Chemicals and Hanwha Total were looking to buy naphtha this week for second-half December delivery.
Price details were not immediately clear but heavy full-range naphtha discounts could be wider than $11 a tonne to Japan quotes on a cost-and-freight basis because of oversupply, industry sources said. Taiwan’s Formosa is looking to buy reformate for 2021 arrival at Mailiao through a tender closing next week, industry sources said.—Reuters