Asia's naphtha second-half December price spread was $4.50 a tonne than the following month's value, making it the highest intermonth differential since October 14, reflecting good demand. Traders said buyers inventories were low while supplies from the West, including Europe and the Mediterranean, to Asia next month could be hampered by bad weather as winter approaches.
The Philippines' JG Summit was still in talks to buy a total of about 600,000 tonnes of naphtha for 2016 delivery to Batangas, traders said. Japan's Idemitsu was also in talks to seal a January-June term deal with sellers. Demand for spot and term contracts on a cost-and-freight (C&F) basis has been brisk recently and this had help turned the market around for sellers this week. Spot prices on a C&F basis for cargoes delivering in second-half December to South Korea were close to returning to the positive zone after holding at discount levels since second-half October.
GASOLINE HIGHER Asia's gasoline crack rose 9.5 percent to a one-week high of $10.49 a barrel after falling to an eight-month low on October 21. Although the current value was below the average for the first nine months of this year at nearly $12.80 a barrel, gasoline has been outperforming other oil products for most of this year. But it is entering its off-peak season. In a note, Goldman Sachs said that it expect gasoline demand strength to persist but growth would be down by half in 2016 because of the high base demand in 2015.
Comments
Comments are closed.