Japan's Oct output of ethylene edges up 1% from Sep as cracker turnarounds end

Tokyo (Platts)--15Nov2012/335 am EST/835 GMT


Japan's ethylene output rose 1% month on month in October to 500,000 mt, but fell 10% from a year earlier, the Japan Petrochemical Industry Association announced Thursday.

The month-on-month increase in output coincided with the end of turnarounds at various steam crackers.

JX Nippon Oil & Energy restarted its sole steam cracker at Kawasaki on October 11, after an extended maintenance that began August 13, a company source said in October. The steam cracker can produce 404,000 mt/year of ethylene.

Article continues below...


Request a free trial of: Asian PetrochemicalscanAsian Petrochemicalscan
Asian Petrochemicalscan

Asian Petrochemicalscan provides weekly market updates, commentary and assessments ranging from naphtha feedstocks to aromatics, olefins, and polymers in Southeast Asia, Korea, Taiwan and Japan.

Request a trial to Asian PetrochemicalscanRequest More Information

In addition, Idemitsu Kosan restarted its steam cracker at Tokuyama, Yamaguchi Prefecture, at the end of October after scheduled maintenance that had been going on since September 4. The cracker can produce 623,000 mt/year of ethylene.

Below is Japan's October production volumes of ethylene, linear density polyethylene, high density PE, polypropylene and polystyrene: --Anton Ferkov, anton_ferkov@platts.com --Edited by E Shailaja Nair, shailaja_nair@platts.com