Asia's naphtha crack recovered some of the previous day's losses to reach a two-session high of $61.20 a tonne on Tuesday, though it remains more than 35 percent lower than a year ago because of ample supplies. Spot demand for open-specification naphtha for delivery in the first half of May to North Asia has yet to emerge after last week's spree for second-half April cargoes.
Cargoes offered for April loading from India were limited, but there is still time to sell cargoes for loading next month.
India's March shipment at 600,000 tonnes was higher than last year's monthly average of 550,000 tonnes.
Essar Oil and Indian Oil Corp (IOC) have outstanding tenders to sell a total of up to 62,000 tonnes of naphtha for loading in the second week of April, traders said.
This could not be independently confirmed because sellers do not comment on their tenders or deals. Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) sold 34,500 tonnes a few weeks ago for loading April 6-7 from Hazira.
GASOLINE DOWN
Asia's gasoline crack slipped by 0.4 percent to a four-session low of $10.51 a barrel, but deals remained brisk in the Singapore cash market, with five deals totalling 250,000 barrels.
This brought this month's total for loadings in the second half of March to early April to about 2.6 million barrels, surpassing February's 1.65 million barrels and January's roughly 2.5 million barrels.