SINGAPORE, May 15 (Reuters) - The Asian naphtha price fell for the third straight session on
Wednesday to reach its lowest in 1-1/2 weeks of $858 a tonne, with its margin slipping to a
four-session low of $91.80 a tonne as crawling demand in Europe weighed on eastern values.
Traders blamed the lacklustre gasoline demand in the west for having brought the Asian
sentiment down.
"It's the European factor, which is mainly gasoline driven," said a Singapore-based trader.
Depending on grades, naphtha can be reformed into gasoline, used as a gasoline blendstock or
be cracked into petrochemical products.
Healthy demand from South Korea did not turn the market around for the day.
Top ethylene maker Lotte Chemical bought two cargoes of naphtha totalling about 50,000
tonnes for second-half June arrival at Daesan at a premium of about $10 a tonne to Japan quotes
on a cost-and-freight (C&F) basis.
Similarly, the Asian gasoline crack was hit by the weakness in western demand and fell to
its lowest in four sessions of $8.34 a barrel.
Gasoline cash deals were absent.
Japanese gasoline stocks were seen 1.16 percent higher at 2.28 million kilolitres in the
week to May 11. This was in spite of lower refinery throughput.
Its naphtha stocks were up 0.11 million kilolitres to 1.87 million in the week to May 11.
* NAPHTHA TENDERS: Gunvor returned to buy a naphtha cargo from India after an absence of
almost six months.
- It bought from Hindustan Mittal Energy Ltd (HMEL) a 25,000-tonne cargo for June 6-7
loading from Mumbai.
- Traders estimated the premium to be around $50 a tonne to Middle East quotes on a
free-on-board (FOB) basis.
- Kuwait has an outstanding tender to sell 24,000 tonnes of light naphtha for end May
loading.
* SINGAPORE CASH DEALS: Itochu bought a first-half July naphtha cargo from Vitol at $853 a
tonne, making this the only cash deal for the day.
* REFINERY NEWS: A two-month shutdown of Oman's biggest refinery has slashed Omani regular
gasoline output by 42 percent in the first quarter of 2013, with 69 percent drop in naphtha
production, according to government data.
LIGHT DISTILLATES
CASH ($/T) ASIA Change % Change Prev RIC
CLOSE Close
OSN Naphtha CFR Japan M1 858.00 -12.00 -1.38 870.00 (NAF-1H-TYO)
OSN Naphtha CFR Japan M2 848.00 -9.50 -1.11 857.50 (NAF-2H-TYO)
OSN Naphtha Diff 10.00 -2.50 -20.00 12.50 (NAF-TYO-DIF)
Naphtha Netback FOB Sing 92.76 -1.28 -1.36 94.04 (NAF-SIN)
Naphtha Diff FOB Sing 1.46 -0.23 -13.61 1.69 (NAF-SIN-DIF)
Naphtha-Brent Crack 91.80 -7.80 -7.83 99.60 (NAF-SIN-CRK)
Gasoline 97 116.32 -0.61 -0.52 116.93 (GL97-SIN)
Gasoline 95 114.00 -0.10 -0.09 114.10 (GL95-SIN)
Gasoline 92 110.50 -0.90 -0.81 111.40 (GL92-SIN)
Gasoline crack 8.34 -0.34 -3.92 8.68 (GL92-SIN-CRK)
SWAPS ($/T) ASIA Change % Change Prev RIC
CLOSE Close
(0830
GMT)
Brent M1 102.15 -0.50 -0.49 102.65
Naphtha CFR Japan M1 844.00 -9.00 -1.06 853.00
Naphtha CFR Japan M1/M2 6.00 0.00 0.00 6.00
Naphtha CFR Japan M2 838.00 -9.00 -1.06 847.00
Naphtha Japan-Sing Netback M1 13.75 4.50 48.65 9.25
Naphtha Japan-Sing Netback M2 19.00 2.25 13.43 16.75
Naphtha FOB Sing M1 92.25 -1.50 -1.60 93.75
Naphtha FOB Sing M1/M2 1.25 -0.25 -16.67 1.50
Naphtha FOB Sing M2 91.00 -1.25 -1.36 92.25
Naphtha Cracks M1 -9.04 -0.50 5.85 -8.54
East-West Naphtha M1 21.50 0.50 2.38 21.00
East-West Naphtha M2 18.75 -0.50 -2.60 19.25
NWE Naphtha M1 822.50 -9.50 -1.14 832.00
NWE Naphtha M1/M2 3.25 -1.00 -23.53 4.25
NWE Naphtha M2 819.25 -8.50 -1.03 827.75
Crack NWE Naphtha-Brent M1 -11.12 -0.44 4.12 -10.68
Crack NWE Naphtha-Brent M2 -11.35 -0.26 2.34 -11.09
*Sing refers to Singapore
(Reporting by Seng Li Peng; editing by James Jukwey)
