Asia's naphtha crack at $58.50 a tonne on Thursday was at its lowest since June 7, while the gasoline crack at $8.40 a barrel was at its lowest in over three months. Trade and industry sources said weakness in the US gasoline market was exerting downward pressure in Asia. "There was a build-up in gasoline stocks in the US and this could see the US pushing their stocks to Asia," said a Singapore-based source.
Singapore's onshore light distillates stocks fell by about 9.5 percent or 1.193 million barrels to reach a seven-month low of 11.413 million barrels in the week ended July 14, official data showed. This contrasted with the stock levels in the US where its gasoline inventories rose 2.1 million barrels last week versus analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 457,000-barrel drop.
The current US gasoline inventories are at 242.4 million barrels, above the five-year average of 223 million barrels, according to EIA data. Malaysia-based Titan was seeking naphtha but the results were not immediately clear. This came a day after South Korea's Hanwha Total picked up cargoes that were of heavier and not open-specification grades for second-half July delivery at premiums of $2 to $3 a tonne to Japan quotes on a cost-and-freight basis.
This however could not be directly confirmed as buyers do not usually comment on their deals. PetroChina's Fushun refinery in the Liaoning province of North China has started a 45-day maintenance on June 1 at two of its crude distillation units which have a combined capacity of 1.15 million tonnes a year.
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