Some ethylene plants in North Asia are switching up to 10 of their feedstock to butane because of its recent considerable price advantage against naphtha,a Platts survey of the industry found last week.Naphtha cargoes in the C+F Japan market,which have become dearer on the tails of global crude benchmarks hitting new all-time highs,were assessed at US501.50/mt Thursday,while butane cargoes for the same period on a CFR Japan basis settled a good US22 below,at US478-480/mt.The C+F Japan naphtha market for second-half May delivery hit its highest on Platts records at US515.25/mt on Apr 4,putting it US39.25/mt above that day's comparable butane assessment.
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