Asian naphtha crack down as buying spree comes to a halt

15-Mar-16

The start of the week saw Asia's naphtha crack falling 8% to a three-session low of US$56.6/ton as demand for open-spec naphtha was mostly muted following heavy buying last week from Taiwan and South Korea, as per Reuters. Sellers were still grappling with high supplies despite the purchases for second-half April cargoes, traders said. In Japan, February imports at 1.18 mln tons were 12% lower than in January, official data showed. Taiwan's January naphtha consumption at approximately 1.1 mln tons was down nearly 11% from December, official data showed. There was one naphtha cash deal in the Singapore market, with Trafigura buying a H1-May naphtha cargo from Shell at US$360/ton.