Asia's naphtha price at four week highs, cracks dive to two week lows

04-Apr-11

Asia's naphtha price ended the week at its highest in about four weeks on Friday, but cracks dived to their lowest in about two weeks despite healthy demand from South Korea, as per Reuters. Samsung Total came forward to buy 25,000 tons of open-spec naphtha for H1-May arrival at premiums of around US$8/ton to Japan spot quotes on a cost-and-freight (C&F) basis. However, despite lesser volumes offered for exports in April by India, supplies are unlikely to be tight. India's April exports are expected to be down by around 24% to 700,000 tons versus March at 920,000 tons. The reduced volumes coupled with some traders needing to cover their short positions had helped sustained Indian April sales premiums above US$20/ton, higher than March average sales at US$17.36/ton. Open spec front-month H2-May naphtha climbed by US$2.50 to US$1001.50/ ton. Naphtha cracks fell US$12.20 to US$117.85/ton premium.