HPCL sells April-June naphtha to Itochu

Singapore, Feb 14: Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) has sold three 25,000 to 30,000-tonne cargoes of naphtha for loading in April, May and June to Japanese trading house Itochu via tender, a trading source said on Wednesday.

Price details of the cargoes, which will be loaded in the port of Vizag, were not immediately available.

Last August, HPCL cancelled a tender to sell three 30,000-tonne naphtha cargoes for August to November loadings, due to low prices as the Asian naphtha market at that time was weak on record-high Indian naphtha exports.

But the regional petrochemical feedstock market has picked up sharply this year, as India's exports have fallen below 500,000 tonnes for February and March loadings, against last year's average monthly shipments of about 520,000 tonnes.

For a full list of India's naphtha exports: [ID:nSP104109] The Brent/naphtha crack -- the premium paid for naphtha versus Brent crude -- hit a three-year high of 3-4 a tonne last week.

Naphtha is the feedstock used to produce ethylene and propylene, the basic building blocks for the chemical sector.

Reuters>