SINGAPORE: Asia's naphtha crack for front-month second-half May on Wednesday hit a two-week low of $82.33 a tonne, dragged down by firm Brent crude at above $70 a barrel and weak gasoline fundamentals.
- Asia's gasoline crack dropped to $7.01 a barrel, lowest since Jan. 5, due to high supplies.
- Demand for naphtha in Asia remained firm but some traders were not expecting the strength to extend beyond premiums for May cargoes due to coming cracker maintenance in Japan and Taiwan.
- But for now spot naphtha premiums for May were holding firm.
- Formosa Petrochemical Corp, Asia's top naphtha importer, bought around 120,000 tonnes of open-specification fuel grade for second-half May arrival at Mailiao from two sellers at premiums of about $11 a tonne to its own price formula on a cost-and-freight (C&F) basis.
- This was similar to what Formosa had paid in late March for cargoes arriving in first-half March, making that the highest premium the Taiwanese firm had paid since December.
INVENTORIES: Japan's gasoline stocks rose 340,000 barrels to reach a three-week high of about 10.7 million barrels in the week to April 7, official data showed.
- Several tankers have left or discharged in Amsterdam in recent days, alleviating a glut off Europe's coast following more than 400,000 tonnes of petrol being stored aboard ships previously.
REFINERY NEWS: Sinopec Corp will shut its entire 460,000 barrels per day refinery and a 1.1 million tonnes-per-year ethylene complex in Zhejiang for a 40-day maintenance starting from May 1.
- The Zhenhai Refining and Chemical Company is Sinopec's largest refinery.
CASH DEALS: No naphtha deals but five on gasoline.
- Singapore's gasoline cash trades have remained vibrant with some 1.95 million barrels having changed hands between April 2 and 11 versus about 1.7 million barrels for the same period last month.
- Vitol was a key seller of the cargoes this month, having sold about 1.05 million barrels, or about 54 percent of the total volumes traded this month.
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