Weak demand darkens outlook for Asian, European naphtha markets.

摘要

In Asia, naphtha's inter-month spread between first-half July and first-half Aug. contracts was assessed at a backwardation of $3.50/mt on May 29, the weakest since mid-Feb. due to thin consumption. Cracker outages and maintenance, particularly an ongoing outage at Taiwanese Formosa Petrochemical's 700K-mt/y Mailiao cracker, have dampened prompt naphtha demand. Meanwhile, lackluster buying interest for downstream products, such as styrene monomer and polyethylene, also is pressuring down the market, traders said. "Demand is decreasing, and the oudook is bearish," a naphtha trader commented.