The heightened losses have been attributed to several key issues: significant inventory write-downs, increased associate losses from Lotte Chemical USA Corp due to a maintenance shutdown, and deepening foreign exchange losses.
Although crude imports rose by a modest 265,000 barrels per day (bpd) during the week, exports plunged by over 1.4 million bpd, leading to a significant net import spike of nearly 1.7 million bpd compared to the previous week.