Asia Naphtha-S Korea's S-Oil fetches steeper premiums

SINGAPORE, July 23 (Reuters) - South Korea's S-Oil has sold 33,000 tonnes of light naphtha for Aug. 18-22 loading from Onsan to Japan's Itochu at sharply higher premiums than a June cargo it sold in late May on the back of a stronger market, traders said on Monday.

The spot cargo was sold late last week between premiums of $10.50 and $13.50 a tonne to Japan spot quotes on a free-on-board (FOB) basis. That was sharply higher than a slight premium of less than $1.00 it fetched for a late June cargo also sold to Itochu.

It was unclear if South Korea's third largest refinery has managed to sell any spot for July lifting although it made an offer previously.

The Asian naphtha market started improving early this month due to better petrochemical profits, with an unexpected shutdown at JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp hastening the recovery as naphtha supply was cut. (Reporting by Seng Li Peng; Editing by Joseph Radford)