Asia's naphtha crack rose to $58.78 a tonne while the inter-month spread surged 50% to $9 a tonne, making both the values at their highest since March 3 amid brisk demand. The inter-month spread, which was at a discount on Monday, refers to the front-month second-half April open-specification naphtha price against second-half May.
Five buyers snapped up more than 200,000 tonnes on Thursday for second-half April delivery. Spot prices were lowered compared to deals made last month or in January due to weaker fundamentals after an explosion on March 4 forced South Korea's Lotte Chemical to shut a petrochemical unit.
This has resulted in lost demand and Lotte Chemical is seeking to defer 10 cargoes it was meant to receive in March and April. Formosa bought 100,000 tonnes of the open-specification grade fuel at premiums of about $7 a tonne to its own price formula on a cost-and-freight (C&F) basis, down from the $12 to $13 a tonne premium it had paid on February 26.
Titan paid a low single digit premium compared to a high single premium it had paid on February 26. Hanwha Total paid around $5 a tonne premium to Japan quotes on a C&F basis, dramatically lower than the $19 a tonne premium it paid on January 29.
YNCC paid a premium which was less than $7 a tonne to Japan quotes on a C&F basis versus $5.50 a tonne premium it had paid early this week. Singapore's PCS paid a small premium. India's Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) sold 35,000 tonnes of naphtha on Wednesday for March 25-26 loading from Mumbai to Gunvor at premiums of about $20 a tonne to its own price formula on a free-on-board (FOB) basis.
BPCL sold on Wednesday another 25,000 tonnes of naphtha for March 27-28 loading from Kochi to Gunvor at premiums of about $24 a tonne. The premiums fetched were lower when compared to BPCL's most recent deals with Aramco. Asia's gasoline in contrast to naphtha fell to $5.37 a barrel, the lowest since March 4, weighed down by high inventories. Singapore's onshore light distillates stocks, comprising most gasoline and blending components for petrol, reached an 11-month high of 14.6 million barrels in the week to Wednesday, official data showed.
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