Asia’s naphtha markets eased slightly, with timespreads narrowing and margins declining slightly from a day earlier, though the pace of spot activity stayed upbeat.

At least two southeast Asia importers were mulling to start buying December spot cargoes, traders said, along with some of the South Korean majors.

South Korea’s Lotte Chemical sought for around 25,000 tons of open-spec naphtha for delivery second-half November.

On the sale tenders front, both BPCL and HPCL offered up to three 35,000-ton cargoes loading October 18-19, October 24-26 and November 5-10. BPCL’s tender closes today while HPCL’s tenders close tomorrow.

Naphtha refining margins declined around $6 per ton to $93 per ton.

For gasoline, trader spot buying activities continued to buoy markets with at least one regional trader seeking front-month deliveries to cover their requirements.

Octane-92 gasoline cracking margins gained further to almost $13.3 a barrel, with some traders still expecting near-term fundamentals to stay firm.

On the refiner front, Indonesia’s Pertamina closed tenders to buy two 200,000-barrel cargoes of octane-92 gasoline yesterday, as they sought one undyed cargo and one regular cargo.

NEWS

– The United States and China on Tuesday began charging additional port fees on ocean shipping firms that move everything from holiday toys to crude oil, making the high seas a key front in the trade war between the world’s two largest economies.

– Russia’s seaborne oil product exports fell 17.1% in September from August to 7.58 million metric tons due to lower fuel production as various refineries were impacted by drone attacks, data from industry sources and Reuters calculations showed.

– Oil prices reversed early gains and fell on Tuesday amid uncertainty about trade tensions between the U.S. and China, the world’s top two economies, and as the International Energy Agency (IEA) flagged weaker fundamentals.

SINGAPORE CASH DEALS

– Two naphtha deals, one gasoline deal
Source: Reuters