Asia's gasoline crack hits another new low

Asia's gasoline crack hit yet another new low on Tuesday at a discount of $13.15 a barrel to Brent crude as demand for petrol remained dented by restrictions on people movements to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

While Spain and Austria have eased movement restrictions, India, a major gasoline exporter, has extended a nationwide lockdown until May 3. Britain and France have also extended their lockdowns.

Hardly any country is spared the impact of the coronavirus on gasoline demand.

Sales for gasoline and ethanol in Brazil, for instance, initially fell 60% after the arrival of the coronavirus but has recovered slightly in recent days with demand down 30-35%, compared with levels prior to the outbreak, said the chief executive of Brazilian fuel distributor Petrobras Distribuidora SA.

China in the meantime had exported a total of 7.26 million tonnes of refined oil products including gasoline and diesel in March, up from 7.21 million tonnes from the same period last year, official data showed.

Asia's naphtha crack edged down to a discount of $55.38 a tonne to Brent crude versus a discount of $54.40 in the previous session as high supplies weighed.

But demand was brisk these two days, with buyers from Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea coming forward to snap up cargoes for second-half May delivery.

Lotte Chemical bought the fuel at a discount of about $14.00 to Japan quotes on a cost-and-freight (C&F) basis while KPIC paid a discount of about $13.50 a tonne to Japan quotes on a C&F basis.

Taiwan's Formosa, also Asia's largest single importer of naphtha, was looking to buy the petrochemical feedstock through a tender due to be awarded on Wednesday.

These deals and fresh tenders came a day after purchases made by YNCC at a discount of about $14 a tonne and PCS at a discount of about $30 a tonne.

Bahrain has an outstanding tender to sell 50,000 tonnes of B210 grade for May 20-23 loading from Sitra while Egypt has offered two cargoes for May loading from Suez.