Asia's naphtha crack was at a three-session low of $19.30 a tonne on Friday as the impact of plentiful supplies and cracker maintenance in August had more influence on the market than demand from South Korea, Japan and Malaysia. Japan's Mitsubishi Chemical emerged to buy naphtha for second-half October delivery. The petrochemical maker paid a low-single digit discount per tonne to Japan quotes on a cost-and-freight (C&F) basis, but pegged to 60-day prior price formula, industry sources said, instead of the usual 30-day formula.

Other buyers in the market this week include Titan, GS Caltex and Lotte Chem. In Indonesia, the country's only naphtha cracker operated by Chandra Asri has been undergoing maintenance since Aug. 1 for 55 days. Taiwan's Formosa Petrochemical also has maintenance this month at its 1.03 million tonne per year cracker. Asia's gasoline crack fell to a 1-1/2 week low of $6.64 a barrel after hitting nearly a one-month high the previous day.

Copyright Reuters, 2019