Taiwan’s Formosa buys 250,000t naphtha for H1 April

25 February 2010 10:28  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--Taiwan’s Formosa Petrochemical Corp (FPC) has bought 250,000 tonnes of spot naphtha for delivery in the first half of April in anticipation of tighter supply as some naphtha crackers will soon return from maintenance, traders said on Thursday.

Formosa bought the April supplies at $3.00-5.00/tonne to Japan CFR (cost and freight) quotes, resuming spot purchases after skipping spot requirements for March, they said.

“Supplies will be tighter in April than in March because of a lower rate of (cracker) turnarounds,” a trader added.

Healthy ethylene margins persisted, with ethylene assessed at $1,260-1,280/tonne (€932-947/tonne) NE Asia, ICIS pricing data showed.

The benchmark naphtha crack spread versus Brent crude firmed up by $3.88/bbl from Wednesday to $147.03/tonne – the highest since 8 February because of the still healthy margins, helped by a rally in global crude futures this week, according to ICIS pricing.

Formosa would skip spot naphtha imports for next month, after deferring a delivery of 50,000 tonnes of open-spec naphtha to the first half of March from the second half of February in the face of ample stockpiles.

($1 = €0.74)

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By: Felicia Loo

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