Asia Naphtha Market Gathers Stability with Reviving Demand

After experiencing a period of prolonged uncertainty, Asia Naphtha market is paving strong grounds with spot demand for October reviving in several regions. The intermonth spread for initial weeks of October and November braced parity, improving the declared contango by USD 3 / tonne prior 1 week of rebounded stock buying. The market dived and reached a contango in early August as Naphtha fundamentals suffered on poor cracker demand with several plant going on maintenance turnaround. Demand saw a prominent revive in later half, as few end-users showed interest in buying spot cargoes for October. South Korea’s Yeochun and Lotte Chemicals have already purchased appreciable volume of Naphtha cargoes in the shipments for the first half of October. Whereas Taiwan Formosa and LG Chem are continuously seeking for profit days to buy their Naphtha cargoes. With improving demand, Naphtha margins have surged close to USD 73.05/tonne on 24 August. However, the long -term stability is still under the red margin, with Coronavirus stress lingering in several parts of Southeast Asia.