Asia ethylene-naphtha spread rises $22.05/mt on day to hit 3-month high

Exports of distillates from the US Gulf Coast to Europe in September stand at 920,000 mt so far, according to data from cFlow, S&P Global Platts trade flow software.

By comparison, a total of 1.21 million mt crossed the Atlantic during the same period in August, the data shows.

The inbound clean products are set to arrive in European ports in 22 cargoes, with eight of these comprising 340,000 mt heading towards Mediterranean destinations.

In a reversal of the usual flow of distillates from US to European ports, some cargoes have been crossing the Atlantic laden with product in the opposite direction.

Exports out of Europe to Latin America were helping clear some summer volumes from Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp, where vessels were seen loading product from Primorsk, Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

A strong Gulf Coast market has been put down to some unexpected refinery outages both there and in Latin America, which have provided a price floor for spot barrels.

LyondellBasell's 263,776 b/d Houston facility reported a plant-wide power outage Thursday after a fire at the plant Wednesday, while PDVSA reported that it was gradually restarting its 310,000 b/d Cardon refinery in Venezuela after a blackout Thursday.

"Demand is good, it's the end of winter... it's always more or less the case... plus there are still some problems in Venezuela so refining is down so [they] import instead of exporting, it changes the balance," a trader said.

The Naviga8 Andesine, High Efficiency, Citrus Express, Arctic Bay and Star N have all been fixed to Brazilian ports, according to sources.

"There has been some European cargoes heading to South America because it seems the US Gulf Coast is not supplying. So the arbitrage from Europe has been sending material," a source said.