Asia's naphtha crack extended losses for the third straight day on Wednesday, hitting a two-week low of $83.28 a tonne, while spot premiums remained firm on supply cuts due to refinery maintenance in the Middle East.
South Korea's Lotte Chemical paid a premium of $22 to $23 a tonne to Japan quotes on a cost-and-freight (C&F) basis in the previous session for naphtha, reflecting a spike of more than 29% versus $17 to $17.50 a tonne premium the petrochemical maker had paid on January 9.
Overall, the current naphtha premiums are sharply higher than a year ago when the value was at most in a low single-digit premium level, Reuters data showed.
The strong premiums persisted despite high volumes of cargoes arriving this month in Asia from the West and naphtha cracker run cuts in Asia.
Other buyers emerging this week included South Korea's LG Chem, Singapore's PCS and Taiwanese buyers, industry sources said.
But this could not be independently confirmed as buyers do not typically comment on their deals.
Asia's gasoline profit-margin in contrast to naphtha recovered to a three-session high of $4.62 a barrel.
Supplies in the United States, however, were seen high.
Analysts estimated that US stockpiles of gasoline had likely risen by 3.2 million barrels last week, making this the 11th consecutive week of gains, a preliminary Reuters poll showed on Tuesday. As a result, shipments of European gasoline and gasoline components to the United States have remained low at about 202,700 tonnes so far in January, Refinitiv Eikon data showed.
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