Asia naphtha inter-month contango narrows to $1/t

15 May 2008 12:15  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--Asian naphtha inter-month contango has narrowed and the spreads are now at a discount of $1/tonne as Yeochun Naphtha Cracking Center (YNCC) recovers from its outage, industry sources said on Thursday.

The spreads between second half of June and second half of July in the CFR (cost and freight) Japan naphtha market were at a discount of $0.75/tonne to parity on Monday, and subsequently widened to minus $2.75/tonne, reflecting the sudden bearish sentiments in the market. The spreads were seen at discount of $1/tonne on Thursday.

YNCC’s 550,000 tonne/year No 2 and 400,000 tonne/year No 3 crackers were running at maximum capacity while its  850,000 tonne/year No 1 cracker was back up today.

"The market sentiment has turned good again as YNCC recovers from its outage. Naphtha market suddenly shot up by about $20/tonne late Wednesday by trading at a new record high," a source said.

Asian naphtha broke a new historical high, by trading at $1,022/tonne CFR

late Wednesday as Mitsui Oil Asia Hong Kong sold to Sojitz for the first half of July contract.

Asian naphtha gained 8.14% against gains of 11.51% in the Brent crude markets since early May.

By: Desmond Chia
+65 6780 4359

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