Naphtha in Asia at 10 day low as spot purchases for September cargoes slow

06-Aug-19

Asia’s naphtha crack fell to a 1-1/2 week low of US$29.13/ton as spot purchases for September cargoes slowed since most buyers have replenished stocks for the H1 September, Reuters reports. Apart from Asahi Kasei, few buyers have emerged to seek cargoes scheduled for second-half September delivery.

“There’s maybe not much demand due to cracker turnarounds and LPG (liquefied petroleum gas),” said a sourceto Reuters. LPG prices have been low, giving petrochemical makers incentives to replace some of their naphtha feedstock with the former. Formosa, Asia’s top naphtha buyer, has scheduled a maintenance at its 1.03 mln tpa cracker from mid August to end September.

Indian Oil Corp has offered 35,000 tons of the fuel for Aug. 28-30 loading through a tender closing on Aug. 7. This brings its total volumes for August to 97,000 tons, the highest monthly exports from Chennai since May 2015.