Asia's naphtha crack recovered 1 percent to $124.38 a tonne on Thursday and was just $5 away from a 22-month high hit earlier in the week. Strong demand continued to drive premiums higher after levels in South Korea and Taiwan reached levels not seen since 2015. Taiwan's Formosa bought more naphtha for December arrival at Mailiao. This time, it bought between 100,000 and 150,000 tonnes of open-specification naphtha for second-half December delivery at premiums of about $9.50 a tonne to its own price formula on a cost-and-freight (C&F) basis, making this the highest premium it has paid since March 2015.
Malaysia-based Titan has also bought naphtha for second-half December arrival at Pasir Gudang this week, paying a premium of $9.00 to $9.50 a tonne to Japan quotes on a C&F basis. Singapore's onshore light distillates stocks, comprising mostly gasoline and blending components for petrol, fell 7.4 percent or 857,000 barrels to a two-week low of 10.7 million barrels in the week to November 8, official data showed.
This was in line with lower gasoline stocks in the US where inventories fell to 209.5 million barrels last week, the lowest weekly level since November 2014, according to US Energy Information Administration data on Wednesday. Sri Lanka was set to receive a 40,000-tonne petrol shipment from the United Arab Emirates early on Thursday to help plug a fuel shortage triggered by panic buying, officials said, and India assured further help to its neighbour if needed.