Asia's naphtha cracks fell 7.7 percent to reach a one-month low of $99.80 a tonne while gasoline crack fell to a five-week low of $10.84 a barrel, dragged down by weaker fundamentals in the West, traders said. "The Asian cracks could be mirroring the weakness in the West where gasoline stocks are rising," said a Singapore-based source. Naphtha can be used as a petrochemical feedstock or as a blending component for gasoline.
Gasoline stocks independently held in storage in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) hub for instance rose by 22.9 percent to 1.21 million tonnes in the week to Thursday, the highest since late January, data from Dutch consultancy PJK International showed. This came shortly after US weekly gasoline stocks hit a record high of 259 million barrels last week, data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed.
But Asia's gasoline and naphtha fundamentals are strong, they added. Singapore's onshore light distillates stocks, which comprise mostly gasoline and blending components for petrol, was at a five-week low of 12.76 million barrels in the week to February 15, official data showed. As for naphtha, India's 2017 exports are expected to fall after the volumes rose for the first time in five years in 2016.
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