SINGAPORE: Asia's naphtha crack extended losses to touch its lowest in six sessions at $51.75 a tonne as heavy supplies dragged.
South Korea's YNCC bought 50,000 to 75,000 tonnes of naphtha for first-half August delivery to Yeosu at a discount at levels around $3.50 a tonne to Japan quotes on a cost-and-freight (C&F) basis, traders said.
The discount was steeper compared to purchases made in South Korea in the week of June 13 at an average of $3.
"Prices are cheaper as expected. There's no further impact from refiners switching yields," said a Singapore-based trader.
Supplies of both naphtha and gasoline remain bountiful, traders said.
Although the Singapore onshore light distillates stocks were down in the week to June 22, the weekly average for June was sharply higher compared to a year ago.
Inventory levels were down by 6 percent or 815,000 barrels to reach a near six-month low of 12.961 million barrels in the week to Wednesday, official data showed.
But the weekly average for the four weeks in June at 13.7 million barrels was 18 percent higher than for the same period in June 2015.
High supplies and weak prices in Asia were some key reasons behind 30,000 to 60,000 tonnes of gasoline having moved to South and Central America this month.
REFINERY NEWS: Japan's Cosmo Oil has restarted a 120,000- barrel-per-day (bpd) No. 2 crude distillation unit (CDU) at the 220,000-bpd Chiba refinery on Wednesday after it was shut on May 2 for planned maintenance.
Cosmo Oil will idle a 69,000 bpd No.6 CDU at Yokkaichi refinery for maintenance from October-November.
SINGAPORE CASH DEALS: Three deals.
BP sold a naphtha cargo for second-half August delivery to Trafigura at $429 a tonne.
Vitol bought from PetroChina a 95-octane grade gasoline cargo for July 19-23 loading at $59.90 a barrel.
Unipec bought a 92-octane grade gasoline cargo from SK Energy for July 13-17 loading at $57.30 a barrel.
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