Asia Naphtha/Gasoline-Naphtha firm, freight may slow deals

SINGAPORE, July 22 (Reuters) - The Asian naphtha crack edged up to a four-session high of
$170.25 a tonne on Tuesday as concerns over high freight rates hampering cargoes moving to the
East from Europe countered muted spot demand. 
 Trade and shipping sources said the rates to move a long-range tanker to Japan from Europe
were estimated around $2.3 to $2.4 million, up at least $200,000 tonnes from about two weeks
ago. 
 "Asia needs the cargoes as the market is structurally short. And the West has to export
due to excess," said a trader. 
 The high freight rates could slow down the movements of the long-haul voyages as traders
will be more cautious when fixing the deals. 
 But within the spot market, some buyers had opted to buy liquefied petroleum gas (LPG)
first before committing to naphtha purchases for first-half September delivery in view of the
former"s lucrative prices over naphtha. 
 
 GASOLINE HOVERS AROUND MONTH"S LOW
 The Asian gasoline crack was mostly flat at $10.05 a barrel, lowest since June 25 as more
gasoline-making units were coming back on line after maintenance and outages. 
 Taiwan"s CPC Corp is expected to restart an 80,000 barrels per day (bpd) residue fluid
catalytic cracker (RFCC) in Talin from end July after it was shut on June 24 due to a leakage.
 "But CPC has inventories to supply four gasoline cargoes for August without the production
from the RFCC," said a Singapore-based trader. 
 Traders added that CPC has previously sold three gasoline cargoes and one cargo of
reformate for August loading through a tender. 
 Formosa and South Korea have restarted a gasoline-making unit each following planned
maintenance. 
 
 SINGAPORE CASH DEALS: Four deals. Two each on gasoline and naphtha. 
 Phillips 66 sold to PetroChina a 92-octane gasoline cargo for Aug. 17-21 loading from
Singapore at a premium of $2.20 a barrel to Singapore 92-octane grade quotes on a
free-on-board (FOB) basis. 
 Sietco sold to SK Energy a 95-octane gasoline cargo for Aug. 6-10 loading from Singapore
at a premium of $4 a barrel to Singapore 92-octane grade gasoline quote on a FOB basis. 
 Itochu bought a second-half September naphtha cargo from Socar at $972 a tonne. 
 Total has also bought a second-half September naphtha cargo at the same price of $972 a
tonne, but from Sietco. 
 
 LIGHT DISTILLATES 
 CASH ($/T) ASIA CLOSE Change % Change Prev RIC
 Close 
 OSN Naphtha CFR Japan M1 979.50 11.00 1.14 968.50 NAF-1H-TYO
 OSN Naphtha CFR Japan M2 965.50 10.50 1.10 955.00 NAF-2H-TYO
 OSN Naphtha Diff 14.00 0.50 3.70 13.50 NAF-TYO-DIF
 Naphtha Netback FOB Sing 106.81 1.22 1.16 105.59 NAF-SIN
 Naphtha Diff FOB Sing 2.56 0.12 4.92 2.44 NAF-SIN-DIF
 Naphtha-Brent Crack 170.25 4.47 2.70 165.78 NAF-SIN-CRK
 Gasoline 97 120.90 0.85 0.71 120.05 GL97-SIN
 Gasoline 95 120.15 0.85 0.71 119.30 GL95-SIN
 Gasoline 92 117.95 0.85 0.73 117.10 GL92-SIN
 Gasoline crack 10.05 -0.02 -0.20 10.07 GL92-SIN-CRK
 
 For a list of derivatives prices, including margins, please double 
 click the RICs below. 
 Brent M1 
 Naphtha CFR Japan M1 
 Naphtha CFR Japan M1/M2 
 Naphtha CFR Japan M2 
 Naphtha Japan-Sing Netback M1 
 Naphtha Japan-Sing Netback M2 
 Naphtha FOB Sing M1 
 Naphtha FOB Sing M1/M2 
 Naphtha FOB Sing M2 
 Naphtha Cracks M1 
 East-West Naphtha M1 
 East-West Naphtha M2 
 NWE Naphtha M1 
 NWE Naphtha M1/M2 
 NWE Naphtha M2 
 Crack NWE Naphtha-Brent M1 
 Crack NWE Naphtha-Brent M2 
 *Sing refers to Singapore 
 
 (Reporting by Seng Li Peng, editing by William Hardy)

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Asia Naphtha/Gasoline-Naphtha firm, freight may slow deals