Asian gasoline margin spikes to highest since August 2023
Asia's gasoline refining profit margin rallied to the highest level since August 2023 due to unplanned refinery outages and declining inventories at key trading hubs despite typical seasonal low demand period, traders said.
The crack has gained over nearly 55% this quarter to $17.71 per barrel over Brent crude on the back of planned and unplanned refinery outages, and firm demand from the region's largest importer Indonesia.
A string of refinery outages in the last two months have caused a spike in margin, a Singapore-based trader said.
China's Sinochem has shut one of the crude units at its Quanzhou site in Fujian province in southeastern China, following a fire incident on Thursday.
Adding further support, U.S. gasoline stocks are at their lowest level since November 2014 at 205.1 million barrels, the Energy Information Administration said on Thursday.
Stockpiles at the Singapore hub also registered a drop earlier this week.
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