Asia's gasoline cracks slipped to a three-session low of $10.66 a barrel on Tuesday while naphtha trades were sidelined by the attendance of traders at an annual oil event in Singapore. However, naphtha fundamentals were expected to stay strong in the short term because of the need for feedstock to run crackers that are largely at maximum capacity to meet strong plastics demand.
Naphtha arriving from the West, including Europe and the Mediterranean, next month is expected to be similar to September levels at about 1 million tonnes, said an industry source who monitors West-East trade flows. India's Bharat Petroleum Corp, Essar Oil and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals have outstanding tenders to sell a total of up to 115,000 tonnes of naphtha for October loading.
Indian refiners have so far sold more than 250,000 tonnes of naphtha for October loading. India's monthly average naphtha exports for the first eight months of this year were 756,000 tonnes, up from 630,000 tonnes in the same period last year, official data showed. China exported 908,014 tonnes of gasoline in August, down 11.2 percent from July but still higher than the monthly average of 802,080 tonnes for the first half of 2017, official data showed. China's naphtha imports of 574,342 tonnes for August were down 4.6 percent from July but slightly higher than the monthly average of 547,437 tonnes for the first half of 2017.
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