Asia’s naphtha markets softened on Thursday as a lack of deals in physical markets for the second straight day offset support from a decline in inventories at key trading hubs.

The crack slipped to $114.08 a tonne from $119.05 a tonne a day earlier. On Thursday, the first half April naphtha traded $19.50 per tonne higher than the following month.

The gasoline crack also declined, although losses were limited by firm demand from Indonesia.

Indonesia has boosted imports of gasoline by about 32% in February ahead of the Ramadan festival in March, data from Enterprise Singapore showed.
Asia’s biggest motor fuel buyer has raised its imports of the fuel from Singapore to about 744,000 tonnes in February so far, compared with a monthly average of about 565,000 tonnes in the past three months, the data showed.

INVENTORIES

– Singapore onshore inventories of light distillates dropped by about 2 million barrels to an eight-week low of 15.578 million barrels in the week to Feb. 22, official data showed.

NEWS

– India’s fuel demand is likely to grow 4.7% in the next fiscal year beginning on April 1, initial government estimates showed.

– Residual fuel oil stocks at key trading hub Singapore rose 9% from the previous week to 20-week highs after net imports extended gains, official data showed on Thursday.

SINGAPORE CASH DEALS

Two gasoline trades, no naphtha deals.
Source: Reuters