Europe Gasoline/Naphtha-Gasoline margins slip on slower trading

LONDON, April 4 (Reuters) - Northwest European gasoline refining profit margins fell sharply to $12.48 a barrel on Friday on higher regional inventories and as trading liquidity fell.

• No Eurobob E10 barges traded.

• A total of 8,000 metric tons of Eurobob E5 traded, with Trafigura and Vitol selling to Litasco and Shell.

• Oil product stocks independently held in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage hub rose by over 2% on the week, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global showed.

• Gasoline stocks rose 6.3% to 1.46 million metric tons on increased blending activity and lower exports, Insight Global's Rick Veringmeier said.

• Oil prices fell nearly 8% on Friday, heading for their lowest close since the middle of the pandemic in 2021, as China ramped up tariffs on U.S. goods in the most serious escalation in a global trade war that has investors worried about a recession.

• China announced it will impose additional tariffs of 34% on all U.S. goods from April 10. Nations around the world have readied retaliation after Trump raised tariff barriers to their highest in more than a century, leading to a plunge in world financial markets.​

• EU and UK gasoline and blending component exports to other regions reached 870,000 barrels per day (bpd) in March, Kpler data shows, up slightly from 861,000 bpd in February.