Asia naphtha rises $13.50/tonne on high crude

12 May 2008 04:04  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--Asian naphtha opened $13.50/tonne higher as crude prices in the US hit the $126/barrel mark, industry sources said on Monday.

Second half June prices indications were pegged at $1,015-1,018/tonne CFR (cost and freight) Japan, first half July at $1,015.50-1,018.50/tonne and second half July at $1,016-1,019/tonne.

Asian naphtha broke historical record highs last week, by trading at $1,002/tonne for the first half of July contract. No trades were seen during Friday’s trading session as players kept out of the market in view of Korea’s Yeochun Naphtha Cracking Center (YNCC) outage which dampened market sentiments.

Late Friday, second half June prices indications were pegged at $1,002.50-1,003.50/tonne, first half July at $1,003-1,004/tonne and second half July at $1,003.50-1,004.50/tonne.

US crude futures continued their upward surge over the weekend, surpassing the $126/barrel mark on violence in the Middle East, which heightened worries of supply disruptions from the main producing regions.

Gains in the naphtha markets which had earlier been strong, had slowed tremendously last week due to the outage at YNCC. Asian naphtha gained 6.36% versus gains of 11.75% in the Brent crude markets since early May.

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By: Desmond Chia
+65 6780 4359

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