NEW DELHI: Asia’s cash premiums for 10ppm gasoil dipped to lowest since March 16 on Wednesday amid muted trading at the Singapore window, after US inventories registered a bigger-than-expected rise.

Cash differentials for gasoil with 10 ppm sulphur content were at a premium of $3.60 a barrel to Singapore quotes, down from $4.28 per barrel on Tuesday.

Refining margins, also known as cracks, for 10 ppm gasoil climbed to $50.52 a barrel over Dubai crude in Asian trading hours, compared with $47 a day earlier.

In another bearish signal to the markets, China’s daily crude oil imports in June sank to their lowest since July 2018, as refiners anticipated COVID-19 lockdown measures would curb demand, government data showed.

Data also showed refined oil product exports halved from a year-ago level to 3.21 million tonnes for June, the lowest monthly volume since January 2017.

Middle distillates inventories at the Fujairah Oil Industry Zone (FOIZ) declined by 133,000 barrels to a two-week low of 3.675 million barrels in the week to Monday, according to S&P Global Commodity Insights.

US distillate stocks rose by about 3.3 million barrels, market sources said, compared with analysts’ expectation of an increase of 1.6 million barrels in a Reuters poll.

China’s Hengli Petrochemical Co shut down a 200,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) oil refining unit last week for planned maintenance, a spokesperson for the independent refinery said.