Asia's naphtha crack more than doubled from the previous session, hitting a three-session high of $23.83 a tonne on Thursday, as Brent crude raw material prices fell.
But spot prices of naphtha sold to South Korea has been falling over the weeks as some crackers kept their throughput at slightly reduced rates to combat eroded profits while some others were idled for scheduled maintenance.
YNCC paid a discount of about $1 a tonne to Japan quotes on a cost-and-freight (C&F) basis for two medium-range vessel size naphtha cargoes for first-half May arrival at Yeosu, the first discount it has paid since September 2019.
YNCC's most recent deal was on March 12 when it had paid a premium of some $6 a tonne premium.
The highest premium YNCC paid in 2020 was at $22 on Jan. 20, reflecting how the premiums have came off since.
South Korea's SK Global Chemical will idle its 200,000 tonnes per year (tpy) No. 1 naphtha cracker from December 2020 to shift its focus to producing more lucrative chemical products, its parent company SK Innovation said.
It has another cracker which has a capacity of 670,000 tpy.
Asia's gasoline crack rose for the first time since March 20.
The crack ended the session at a discount of $5.19 a barrel, compared with a discount of $6.62 a barrel, which was at its lowest since 2008.
Singapore's onshore light distillates inventories, which comprise mostly gasoline and blending components for petrol rose 7.6% or nearly 1.1 million barrels to 15.245 million barrels, highest since April 2019.