Naphtha continues to gain on shortage fears

28-Feb-15

The Asian naphtha market continued to gain ground Thursday, on renewed concerns over supply shortages, as per Platts. Bad weather has disrupted operations at several ports in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea causing further delays for arbitrage arrivals from Northwest Europe and the US. A decline in outflows from India has further tightened supply. Market participants estimated that Asia was expected to receive around 1.4 mln mt of arbitrage volumes over February and 1.4 -1.6 mln mt over March, down sharply from the 1.8 -2 mln mt/month that arrived in late 2014. Further, naphtha exports from India are estimated to have fallen to below 500,000 mt in February from the typical level of around 600,000 mt/month due to higher domestic demand from the petrochemical sector, sources said. On the demand side, supportive margins from the downstream petrochemical sector and a pickup in gasoline blending have continued to spur buying interest for naphtha.