Asia's naphtha crack slipped on Monday, but could firm in the coming days as spot cargoes traded at higher premiums, trade sources said. China's Unipec has bought a cargo for December 1-25 arrival at Caojing, China, at more than $20 a tonne to Japan quotes on a cost-and-freight (C&F) basis, traders said, although this could not be independently confirmed.
The fresh premium was more than double what Unipec had paid on October 11 for a cargo scheduled for November delivery. TENDERS: India's Reliance sold 55,000 tonnes of naphtha for early December loading from Sikka at premiums of about $24 a tonne to Middle East quotes on a free-on-board (FOB) basis.
This was the highest premium it has received since it sold a cargo for late April 2015 loading. India's Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) offered a total of 45,000 tonnes of naphtha for November loading from Kochi and Mumbai in a tender closing on November 7. Taiwan's Formosa Petrochemical Corp plans to shut a crude unit, a gasoline-making unit among other secondary units for maintenance at its 540,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) Mailiao refinery in March 2018. Japan's Toa Oil Co said on Monday it was starting up its fire-hit 70,000-barrel-per-day crude distillation unit (CDU) at its Keihin refinery after it was shut on October 9.