Asia's naphtha crack ended the week at 1-1/2 week high of $127.95 a tonne while spot premiums in most part of the region held at over two-year highs due to squeezed supplies. The lack of cheap alternative liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), also a commodity used for heating and cooking, has prompted buyers to rely heavily on naphtha most of this year. Typically, Asian crackers use between 5 and 15 percent of LPG to replace naphtha, provided the economics work.
Taiwan's Formosa Petrochemical Corp, Asia's top naphtha importer, paid a premium of about $10.50 a tonne to its own price formula on a cost-and-freight (C&F) basis for 150,000 to 200,000 tonnes of naphtha scheduled for first-half January arrival at Mailiao. This is the highest premium Formosa has paid since it bought the fuel in March 2015. India's Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) sold up to 32,000 tonnes of naphtha for December 10-11 loading from Kochi to Gunvor but withdrew to sell a cargo from Mumbai for December 9-11 loading.
But it issued a fresh tender to sell 30,000 tonnes of the fuel for December 13-15 loading from Mumbai. Gasoline held independently at the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) storage and refining hub was at a two-week low of 923,000 tonnes in the week of November 22, data from Dutch consultancy PJK International showed. This mirrored the trend in Singapore where light distillates stocks, comprising mainly gasoline, fell this week.
Naphtha stocks held in ARA in contrast was at a two-week high of 232,000 tonnes, the data showed. Asia's gasoline crack recovered to a two-session high of $10.16 a barrel after falling to a three-session low in the previous session. China's gasoline export in October was at a four-month high of nearly 970,000 tonnes while import of naphtha was at a six-month low of 467,418 tonnes, official data showed.
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