Asia's naphtha crack hit a five-and-a-half month low of $73.45 a tonne on Monday, as ample suppliers persistently offset the steady stream of demand. Japan's Mitsubishi Chemical bought naphtha for first-half March delivery at a lower single-digit premium a tonne to Japan quotes on a cost-and-freight (C&F) basis.
This came shortly after South Korea bought naphtha last week at lower premium levels not seen in about four months. South Korea's YNCC on the other hand likely wanted to capitalise on the weak market and issued a tender to buy cargoes for April 2018 to March 2019 delivery. Taiwan's CPC was also out in the market seeking a total of at least 70,000 tonnes of heavy naphtha and full-range grade for March arrival at Kaohsiung in a tender closing on January 30.
Another Taiwanese firm, Formosa Petrochemical Corp, Asia's top naphtha importer, also came forward to buy naphtha for March delivery through a tender closing on January 30. Chinese inventories for three main refined fuel products - diesel, gasoline and jet fuel - grew by 9.1 percent during the month. For gasoline alone, China's stockpile increased 4.7 percent to around 8.62 million tonnes by the end of December, the highest since at least 2010.
Asia's gasoline crack rose to a nearly one-and-a-half month high of $8.86 a barrel to mirror the stronger market in Europe last week. Japan's JXTG Nippon Oil and Energy Corp made an emergency shutdown of the 145,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) crude distillation unit (CDU) at Sendai refinery in northern Japan last Thursday after discovering an oil leak.
The CDU restart schedule was unclear but there was no impact to product shipments from Sendai. Germany's Rhine river was reopened to shipping on Monday after waters fell following its closure for the past week as rain and melting snow raised water levels, authorities said.
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