Asian naphtha crack rises to one-month high

Asia's naphtha crack rose to a one-month high of nearly $80 a tonne on Thursday as persistent demand drove the value higher, while gasoline crack extended gains to reach a five-week high of $10.40 a barrel. Asia's top naphtha importer Taiwanese Formosa Petrochemical Corp has bought 180,000 to 190,000 tonnes of naphtha for first-half May arrival at Mailiao at discounts of $1 to $2.75 a tonne to Japan quotes on a cost-and-freight (C&F) basis.
It had on March 16 bought 100,000 tonnes for second-half April arrival at the same port at discounts of $1.00 to $1.50. This brought this week's purchases from South Korea, Japan and Taiwan to more than 380,000 tonnes versus over 270,000 tonnes last week.
India' Reliance Industries has sold 55,000 tonnes of naphtha for April 24-26 loading from Sikka to BP at premiums close to $10 a tonne to Middle East quotes on a free-on board (FOB) basis. This was similar to the premium it had received from Aramco Trading for a previous cargo sold for April 18-20 loading from the same port.
Indian Oil Corp (IOC) sold to Chevron 35,000 tonnes of naphtha for April 25-27 loading at premiums of more than $11 a tonne to the former's price formula on a FOB basis. HMEL, which rarely exports spot naphtha, sold to Oman Trading an 18,000-tonne cargo for April 17-19 loading from Mumbai. Singapore's onshore light distillates stocks, which comprise mostly gasoline and blending components for petrol, rose nearly 6 percent to reach a two-week high of about 14.2 million barrels in the week to March 29, official data showed. This was about 8.5 percent below the record volumes seen in early March of 2016.