Asia's naphtha at three-session high

25 Nov, 2020

SINGAPORE: Asia's naphtha crack was at a three-session high of $54.45 a tonne on Monday but this remained 15% lower versus a month ago as the supply glut persisted.

Total naphtha supplies to Asia for November are seen at a six-month high of up to 6.4 million tonnes, sharply higher versus October's volumes at up to 4.7 million tonnes following high amount of East-bound cargoes arriving this month, data from Refinitiv Oil Research showed.

The weak fundamentals drew South Korea's LG Chem forward to seek term cargoes.

The petrochemical maker is looking to lock in naphtha for September to December 2021 delivery, industry sources said.

But this could not be independently confirmed as buyers do not typically comment on their deals.

Asia's gasoline crack hit a 3-1/2-month low of $1.06 a barrel due to abundant supplies.

China's gasoline exports in October hit a record high of 1.91 million tonnes, official data showed, sharply higher than analsyts' projections of 1.5 million tonnes.

This was up from September's exports at 1.17 million tonnes and 10% higher versus the same month last year.

China has also issued a new and final batch of refined fuel export quotas for 2020 totalling 3 million tonnes.

The new issue brings the total fuel export quota this year to nearly 59 million tonnes, up from last year's 56 million tonnes.

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