Asia's naphtha crack edged up 5.4 percent to reach a three-month high of $69.53 per tonne as excess supplies shrank on strong demand and fewer European cargoes streaming in. Taiwan's CPC was seeking full-range and heavy naphtha for September arrival at Kaohsiung through a tender which has closed this week, but results were not immediately clear. This added to the string of spot and term purchases that came out of South Korea, Japan and Malaysia.
Formosa, CPC's competitor in Taiwan, had also snapped up about 90,000 tonnes of naphtha this week for first-half September arrival. Indian Oil Corp (IOC) had around mid-week sold 35,000 tonnes of naphtha for August 22-24 loading from Chennai to Total at a premium of about $8 a tonne to its own price formula on a free-on-board (FOB) basis. This was higher versus a cargo IOC sold for August 1-3 loading from the same port to Vitol at a premium of about $5.
Asia's gasoline crack was at a five-session high of $10.92 a barrel. Gasoline stocks held independently at the storage at the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) hub was at a five-week high of 864,000 tonnes in he week to Thursday, data from Dutch consultancy PJK International showed. Despite the increase, gasoline stocks were more than 30 percent lower than a year ago, the data showed. US gasoline stocks USOILG=ECI fell by 1 million barrels in the week to July 21, compared with analyst expectations for a 614,000-barrel drop. Naphtha stocks held at the ARA hub was at a three-month low of 251,000 tonnes, PJK added.
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