India's June naphtha exports could recover to 750,000-800,000 tons vs six month low volumes in May

30-May-12

India's naphtha exports for June are expected to recover by at least 35% to 750,000-800,000 tons vs volumes in May. May volumes were at their lowest in more than six months because of refinery outages and maintenance, as per Reuters. However, supplies have been restored amid poorer demand from key importers Taiwan and South Korea because of cracker maintenance and run cuts respectively. The weak demand situation could get compounded by higher volumes next month from India as South Korea's YNCC, SK Energy and Thailand's IRPC are cutting cracker runs from this week and in June to combat weak petrochemical margins, wiping out about 71,000 tons of naphtha demand in a month. Additionally, Asia's top naphtha buyer is shutting its 700,000 tpa No 1 cracker on June 19 for a 40 to 45-day maintenance period, eliminating an estimated demand volume of more than 200,000 tons of naphtha during the shutdown period. So far, India has already sold 475,000 tons of naphtha for June loading, including term cargoes. Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) is tripling its volumes for June to 105,000 tons versus May as it has restored runs at its 300,000 bpd plant after a supply disruption that lasted slightly more than three weeks for lack of water.