Naphtha crack in Asia dips to lowest in about a week amid weakness in European market

05-Apr-16

Asia's front-month naphtha crack hit its lowest in about a week on Friday, dragged down by weakness in the European market, but traders said to Reuters that they expected demand in the East to provide support. The naphtha crack for H2-May was at US$91.08/ton after the front-month value had neared a 2-1/2 month high on Wednesday as demand from South Korea, Japan and Taiwan was firm. Buyers from these three countries had bought more than 350,000 tons of naphtha for H1-May delivery through tenders. Supplies from the West, including Europe, for April arrival on the other hand were seen down to 1.4 mln tons compared to a monthly average of 1.8 mln tons for Q1 arrival, as per Reuters. "Europe was seen weaker in the previous session," said an industry source Singapore, referring to the softness in the Asian market. "Other than that, there are no key reasons." Although South Korea's Lotte Chemical's 1 mln tpa cracker shuts this month for maintenance, YNCC and Japan's Tosoh will restart a cracker each around mid-April following turnaround that started last month. India's BPCL has sold 35,000 tons of naphtha for April 28-30 loading from Mumbai to Marubeni at close to a premium close to US$14/ton to Middle East quotes on a free-on-board (FOB) basis. This was more than double the premium the refiner had fetched at US$5 for a cargo sold out of Mumbai for March 24-26, also to Marubeni as fundamentals have been improving since the start of this week on reduced supplies coming to Asia from the West.