Asia's naphtha cracks edged up 15 cents to a five-session high of $101.85 a tonne on Thursday, supported by persistent strong demand. South Korea's Hanwha Total, GS Caltex, Lotte Chemical and SK Energy were seeking naphtha for first-half March delivery, traders said.
Lotte Chemical for instance had paid a premium of $6 to $7 a tonne to Japan quotes on a cost-and-freight basis for at least 100,000 tonnes of naphtha for delivery to Yeosu and Daesan, they added. This was the highest spot price a South Korean buyer had paid for open-specification naphtha in nearly 21 months as supplies tightened on demand and lower volumes of naphtha coming to Asia next month from Europe versus January.
GS Caltex on the other hand had paid about $8 a tonne premium but the grade of the naphtha cargo could not be confirmed. The string of buying interest from South Korea came a day after Asia's top naphtha importer Formosa Petrochemical issued a purchase tender for first-half March cargoes.
Traders said Formosa was in talks and no details on the tender were immediately available. India's Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) sold 30,000 tonnes of naphtha for January 28-30 loading from Mumbai to Japanese Marubeni at a premium of about $10.50 a tonne to Middle East quotes on a free-on-board (FOB) basis. This was more than double the $5.00 a tonne BPCL previously fetched for a cargo lifting from the same port but on January 8-10.
South Korea's Lotte Chemical Corp said on Thursday it had submitted a letter of intent earlier this month to acquire Singapore petrochemical company Jurong Aromatics Corp (JAC). Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) may take two to three months to restart a gasoline making residual fluid catalytic cracker (RFCC) unit after a fire at its Ruwais refinery, three industry sources said.