Asia's naphtha crack extended losses to touch its lowest in six sessions at $51.75 a tonne as heavy supplies dragged. South Korea's YNCC bought 50,000 to 75,000 tonnes of naphtha for first-half August delivery to Yeosu at a discount at levels around $3.50 a tonne to Japan quotes on a cost-and-freight (C&F) basis, traders said.
The discount was steeper compared to purchases made in South Korea in the week of June 13 at an average of $3. "Prices are cheaper as expected. There's no further impact from refiners switching yields," said a Singapore-based trader. Supplies of both naphtha and gasoline remain bountiful, traders said.
Although the Singapore onshore light distillates stocks were down in the week to June 22, the weekly average for June was sharply higher compared to a year ago. Inventory levels were down by 6 percent or 815,000 barrels to reach a near six-month low of 12.961 million barrels in the week to Wednesday, official data showed. But the weekly average for the four weeks in June at 13.7 million barrels was 18 percent higher than for the same period in June 2015.