Asia's naphtha crack slipped from a 2-1/2 month high to a two-session low of $84.60 a tonne on Friday but was still 8.2 percent higher than a month ago as supplies tightened.
China's CNOOC was seeking up to 80,000 tonnes of open-specification naphtha for second-half April delivery to Huizhou through a tender closing on March 19.
But most buyers have purchased naphtha for delivery in the second half of April, including Asia's top importer Formosa. The Taiwanese petrochemical maker bought a total of 100,000 tonnes of open-specification naphtha for second-half April delivery, likely in two separate tenders, at single-digit premium to its own price formula on a cost-and-freight (C&F) basis.
This sharply contrasted the discounts it was paying between end January and whole of February. Asia's gasoline crack edged up 14 cents to a seventh-session high of $7.88 a barrel. But gasoline weekly inventories in Europe and Singapore were higher although stock levels in the US fell last week.
Gasoline stocks held independently at the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage hub for instance was at a two-week high of 1.309 million tonnes in the week ended Thursday, data from Dutch consultancy PJK International showed. The weak fundamentals have even prompted at least three 90,000 tonne tankers being booked in recent weeks to store gasoline for up to 60 days off the Dutch coasts, according to traders and shipping data.
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