SINGAPORE- Asia's naphtha crack fell 6.3% to a three-session low of $86.70 a tonne on Tuesday after hitting a two-and-a-half month high in the previous day.
- Industry sources said at least one buyer was looking to buy cargoes.
- This came a day after South Korea's Lotte Chemical had paid a premium of about $3 to $4 a tonne to Japan quotes on a cost-and-freight (C&F) basis for naphtha scheduled for first-half November delivery.
- This contrasted the discount it had paid in August for naphtha scheduled for first-half October delivery as current market fundamentals have improved.
- Japan's Showa Denko had also picked up naphtha on Monday at premiums of $5 to $6 a tonne to Japan quotes on a C&F basis, industry sources said.
* GASOLINE: Asia's gasoline premium to Brent crude declined 7.3% to a two-day low of $5.41 a barrel after hitting a six-and-a-half month high in the previous session.
- Indian Oil Corp (IOC) has cancelled a rare tender originally due on Tuesday to import gasoline for October arrival at Kochi and Chennai. But the reason behind was not clear.
- Counterpart Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) has, however, bought a cargo this month for October arrival to plug a supply gap to meet rising demand as it will not be raising crude throughout as long as buying interest for diesel lags.
- In Europe, gasoline and gasoline components being shipped to the United States were seen at around 750,000 tonnes so far in September, the lowest level in the last four months, Refinitiv Eikon data showed.
- This is despite falling gasoline inventories in the United States.
- Analysts estimated that gasoline inventories likely fell by 1.6 million barrels last week, a preliminary Reuters poll showed on Monday.
(Reporting by Seng Li Peng; Editing by Maju Samuel) ((lipeng.seng@thomsonreuters.com ; +65 6870 3086; Reuters Messaging: lipeng.seng.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
