SINGAPORE, May 13 (Reuters) - The Asian naphtha price and its margin each eased from a month's high on Monday to a two-session low of $871 a tonne and $97.30 a tonne respectively due to a slow start.
Traders looked beyond that 3 cents fall in margin.
"It's a tiny slip in value and nothing much has changed in the market," said a Singapore-based trader.
Western naphtha exports are still coming to Asia, although they will be lower than expected since Algeria has cancelled three cargoes it had originally planned on exporting.
India's May exports have recovered to around 700,000 tonnes, up 21 percent from April's volumes.
* NAPHTHA TENDERS: India's BPCL sold a 38,000-tonne cargo for June 11-13 loading from Mumbai to Unipec at a premium of about $33 a tonne to Middle East quotes on a free-on-board (FOB) basis.
- It has sold another 35,000-tonne cargo for June 28-30 loading from the same port to Shell at a premium of about $28 a tonne to the same price formula.
- Indian Oil Corp (IOC) on the other hand was seeking 14,000 tonnes of naphtha for June 5-9 arrival at New Mangalore port in a tender closing on May 15, with offers to stay valid until May 16.
* NAPHTHA CASH DEALS: Two deals.
- Vitol sold to Itochu a first-half June/first-half August naphtha spread deal at $24 a tonne.
- Shell bought from Glencore a first-half July/first-half August spread deal at $12.75 a tonne.
GASOLINE EXTENDS GAINS
The Asian gasoline margin rose for the third straight session to reach its highest in 1-1/2 month of $8.74 a barrel, supported by demand.
There were eight gasoline deals in the Singapore cash market, highest volumes transacted in a single session since April 12.
Glencore bought more than half the transacted volumes.
It bought three 95-octane gasoline cargoes for May 28 to June 1 loading, two of which were from Trafigura at $115.20 a barrel and $115.10 respectively while the other cargo from BP was at $115.00 a barrel.
It had also bought two 92-octane gasoline cargoes for May 28 to June 1 loading, one of which was from Shell at $111.70 a barrel and the other from Total at $111.80.
PetroChina on the hand bought two 92-octane gasoline cargoes for May 30 to June 3 loading at $112.00 a barrel each from Arcadia and BP.
Arcadia has also sold to Shell a 95-octane gasoline cargo for May 30 to June 3 loading at $115.10 a barrel.
Traders were eyeing the stronger monthly demand from Indonesia, where its June imports of 88-octane grade are expected to jump 17.6 percent to 10 million barrels.
They are also expecting a tighter market as refinery cut runs to combat overall weak refining margins.
As for March, Taiwan's gasoline exports dived 21.3 percent in March to 2.8 million barrels from February, data from the Bureau of Energy showed on Monday, marking the lowest volume of shipments since last September, as refinery throughput fell.
Supplies out of Taiwan may still be limited given that CPC Corp has cut runs while Formosa Petrochemical Corp has yet to restart a gasoline-making unit which is in a three-month maintenance mode which started in March.
* OTHER NEWS: The U.S. is expected to add over 10 million tonnes per year of ethylene by 2016 to 2017 while Asian firms are likely to shit to more expensive chemicals to offset deluge.
(Reporting by Seng Li Peng, editing by William Hardy)
