(ICIS) -- Asia’s naphtha backwardation is
likely to strengthen on expectations that Taiwanese Formosa Petrochemical Corp
(FPCC) would restart its long overdue 700 KTa No 1 naphtha cracker at Mailiao
sometime in September, traders said on Friday. The expectations of a restart
have raised hopes of higher demand for naphtha in a market already quite short
of molecules, traders said on Friday.
The time spread between the first-half October and first-half November
contracts was assessed at USD 6/tonne (EUR 4.20/tonne) on Thursday, the
strongest since 16 May when the inter-month spread was at USD 7/tonne, according
to ICIS.
The naphtha crack spread versus October Brent crude futures was valued at
USD 135.60/tonne, up by USD 6.35/tonne on the previous week.
mrcplast.com
|