Asia's naphtha crack eased to a two-session low of $99.38 a tonne on Thursday, dragged down by expectations of higher supplies streaming in from the West, including Europe and the Mediterranean. South Korea's KPIC was looking to buy naphtha, but results were not clear. This came in the same week where premiums for heavy full-range naphtha in South Korea for first-half October arrival at Daesan tanked to around $3 a tonne to Japan quotes on a cost-and-freight (C&F) basis versus this year's high on May 23 of about $17 for Daesan arrival.
PTT was looking to sell 27,500 tonnes of light naphtha for loading between October 6 and October 10 from Map Ta Phut through a tender closing on August 24. India's Mangalore Refinery Petrochemicals and Ltd (MRPL) was looking to sell 35,000 tonnes of naphtha for September 25-27 loading from New Mangalore through a tender closing on August 29.
Bids will stay valid until August 30.
Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) was also looking to sell 35,000 tonnes of naphtha, but for September 9-10 loading from Kochi through a tender closing on August 24.
Asia's gasoline crack fell to a 2-1/2-week low of $8.40 a barrel due to ample stocks despite the recent outages in the Middle East and India.
Although Singapore gasoline inventories were lower week-on-week, current levels were still higher than a year ago.
The Singapore onshore light distillates stocks, which comprise mostly gasoline and blending components for petrol, eased 370,000 barrels or 2.6 percent to a six-week low of 13.9 million barrels in the week ended August 22, official data showed.
But these were about 3 percent higher than a year ago.
Higher gasoline stocks in the United States have also impacted the Asian market, traders said. Gasoline stocks in the United States rose 1.2 million barrels, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 488,000-barrel drop.
China exported 890,000 tonnes of gasoline in July, its lowest monthly volume since February, official data showed.
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