Asian naphtha price falls to two year low

Asian naphtha prices fell $31.5/t d-o-d to $428/t, the lowest level since 2017, Reuters reports.

The sharp drop was in reaction to an explosion at South Korea’s Lotte Chemical cracker. The cracker outage follows reduced operating rates at petrochemical plants across China as a result of the coronavirus, compounding already weak naphtha demand in the region. The coronavirus has restricted the movement of workers in China, impacting plant operations, and led to lower petrochemical demand through weaker retail activity.