Asia sees deep-sea naphtha inflows in Feb up to 500,000 tonnes

12 January 2011 10:09  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS)--Asia is expected to receive some 400,000-500,000 tonnes of deep-sea naphtha from Europe and the Mediterranean in February, beating earlier estimates of 250,000 tonnes, traders said on Wednesday.

“The market flipped. Naphtha in Europe has nowhere to go, plus gasoline economics is no good, so more naphtha is being pushed eastwards,” a trader said.

For January, around half a million tonnes of arbitrage naphtha supplies from the West would land in Asia, traders said.

"The market will be amply supplied with these cargoes coming here," said a trader in Tokyo.

Asian naphtha crack spread versus Brent crude futures slumped to a two-month low of $137.73/tonne (€161/tonne) on Wednesday, ICIS data showed.

($1 = €0.77)

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By: Felicia Loo

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