Asia's naphtha crack rose on Friday to reach a two-week high of $78.13 a tonne supported by a string of demand this week. Apart from Taiwan's two key importers being out in the market this week, South Korea's Hanwha, KPIC, LG Chem, Japan's Idemitsu and China's Unipec were all seeking spot cargoes for August. South Korea's YNCC on the other hand was looking to buy cargoes for a 12-month contract.
But heavier stream of cargoes arriving in Asia have caused premiums for August cargoes to fall versus July. Taiwan's Formosa for instance paid around $5 a tonne to its own price formula on a cost-and-freight (C&F) basis for 100,000 tonnes of open-specification naphtha for August 11-20 arrival at Mailiao on Thursday.
The premium was similar to what it had forked out on June 22 for cargoes scheduled for first-half August delivery but they were three times lower compared with the $15 a tonne premium it had paid for first-half July naphtha.
GASOLINE
Asia's gasoline crack, unlike naphtha, fell to a 1-1/2 week low of $3.85 a barrel on sufficient supplies. Although gasoline stocks in Europe were lower week-on-week, they were significantly higher compared with last year. Gasoline inventories independently held at the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage hub eased 2 percent from the previous week to reach a four-week low of 1.042 million tonnes in the week to June 28, data from Dutch consultancy PJK International showed.
But compared to a year ago, the latest data reflected a 21 percent spike in stockpiles. The data came in the same week where stocks in the US and Singapore were also higher.