Supplies of gasoline are high across regions from Europe to Singapore as reflected in last week's official data. This has kept a tight lid on Asia's gasoline crack this week where the level on Tuesday was down by half from Monday to 73 cents a barrel. Petrochemical buyers continued to emerge to seek naphtha as a feedstock.
South Korea's YNCC bought a total of about 50,000 tonnes of naphtha for second-half February delivery to Yeosu at a premium of about $1 a tonne to Japan quotes on a cost-and-freight (C&F) basis. This was the first premium YNCC had paid for cargoes bought through tenders in over five months, Reuters data showed.
Its purchase came a day after Japan's Idemitsu Kosan, Mitsubishi Chemical and South Korea's GS Caltex had scooped up cargoes. GS Caltex and Idemitsu Kosan had each paid a premium in the low single digit level a tonne to Japan quotes on a C&F basis for naphtha scheduled for second-half February delivery.
Mitsubishi Chemical on the other hand bought naphtha for first-half March delivery at slight discount as it was using a 60-day pricing formula as opposed to the usual 30-day formula, traders said. The above deal done prices are based on traders' estimates as buyers do not typically comment on their deals or operations.
India's Reliance Industries is in talks to sell naphtha under a three- to six-month term contract. It has proposed to sell 55,000 tonnes of naphtha with either a minimum paraffin content of 70 percent or 77 percent each month.
Reliance had recently sold a spot cargo for February loading from Sikka but the details were not known.