Asia's naphtha falls to 12-year low

Asia's naphtha crack on Thursday hovered near a 12-year low by falling 13.7% to a discount of $26.83 a tonne to Brent crude on ample supplies. LG Chem paid a discount of about $2 a tonne to Japan quotes on a cost-and-freight (C&F) basis for naphtha scheduled for May delivery.
This reflected a sharp decline from the premiums of $2 to $5 a tonne to Japan quotes on a C&F basis LG Chem had paid on March 23 for cargoes scheduled for first-half May arrival.
The deal came in the same week when Asia's top naphtha importer, Formosa, bought 50,000 tonnes of the open-specification grade fuel May 11-20 arrival at Mailiao, Taiwan, at a discount of about $3 a tonne to its own price formula on a C&F basis.
This marked the first discount Formosa has paid since September. Other buyers seen this week include Hanwha Total and Idemitsu. South Korea's YNCC had inked a deal for naphtha scheduled for August 2020 to July 2021 delivery to Yeosu at a discount in the low- to mid-single digit a tonne level to Japan quotes on a C&F basis.
Asia's gasoline crack remained in discounts to Brent since March 16 as demand has been crushed by lockdowns and restricted movements of people amid the spread of the coronavirus.
The crack value on Thursday at a discount of $6.41 a barrel rose 5.5% from the previous session but the current value is in stark contrast to the premium of $5.09 seen at the start of the year.
Indian Oil Corp (IOC) is looking to up to 64,000 tonnes of gasoline for April 5-10 and April 9-10 loading from ports of Haldia, Paradip and Kandla through a tender closing on April 3.
Taiwan's CPC on the other hand will not be selling gasoline in the spot market at least in the short haul of May and June and has idled a gasoline-making unit this month in view of the lack of demand.