Asia's naphtha dives; virus worries hurt gasoline

Asia's naphtha crack dived 62% to end the week at a three-session low of $9.08 a tonne on worries that a bleak economic outlook could prompt crackers to keep their throughput at reduced rates.
Several crackers in Asia had already trimmed cracker output in either December or the start of this year to combat eroded margins, with some maintaining the lower throughput this month.
On Friday, India's Haldia Petrochemicals shut its 670,000 tonnes per year (tpy) naphtha cracker after some Indian ports declared force majeure due to a 21-day lockdown announced by the country in a bid to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
This would result in lower demand for naphtha. Asia's gasoline crack remained in the red for the ninth straight session as demand took a hit due to the pandemic that has infected more than 500,000 people and forced countries into lockdowns.
The crack stood at a discount of $4.29 a barrel and has lost more than 190% of its value since the start of the year.
"With gasoline cracks already negative on a tonne basis, margins for gasoline-focused players have collapsed and we are already starting to see some major run cuts," said Kostantsa Rangelova of Vienna-based JBC Energy consulting firm. Gasoline stock held independently at the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage hub edged up by 3.6% to a three-week high of 1.143 million tonnes in the week to Thursday, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global showed.