Japan’s Dec ethylene production up 4.6%

23 January 2007 10:01  [Source: ICIS news]

TOKYO (ICIS news)--Japan’s December ethylene production rose 4.6% from November due to a higher number of working days and a increased operating rate by the plants, industry figures showed on Tuesday.

The country produced 695,000 tonnes of ethylene in December, up from 664,300 tonnes the previous month, the Japan Petrochemical Industry Association (JPCA) said in a statement.

The days the plants were in operation in December increased 3.3% from November, and the operating rate rose 1.3%.

No plants were undergoing turnarounds in December or November.

December ethylene output was 4.3% higher than the same time a year ago.

During the period from January to December 2006, 7.52m tonnes of ethylene were produced, the association said, down 1.3% from 7.62m tonnes in 2005.

Out of the 17 other products listed by JPCA, 13 including polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS) and benzene had higher output in December compared with November partly because the plants were in operation for more days.

Of the four resin products, production of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) in December fell, and output of PP and PS rose month-on-month.

On year-on-year comparison, December output of LDPE, PP and PS rose, while HDPE output fell.

Japan exported more LDPE, PP and PS in December month-on-month, while it exported less HDPE.

LDPE, HDPE and PP in December had higher exports year-on-year, while PS had lower exports.

			Dec-07	% change on month	% change on year
ethylene			695	5	4
LDPE			159.7	-2	4
HDPE			93.6	-1	-4
PP			281.7	3	7
styrene		polymer	78.6	2	2
		monomer	315.9	18	-1
vinyl chloride		polymer	183.8	-1	-4
		monomer	278.1	5	-1
MMA monomer			52.9	24	-1
ethylene oxide			90.1	10	2
ethylene glycol			73.4	26	-1
acetaldehyde			31.5	7	4
ACN			67.2	16	2
SBR (solid)			44.9	8	18
butadiene rubber (solid)			26.3	10	4
aromatics		benzene	475.3	12	9
aromatics		toluene	144.9	-7	4
aromatics		xylene	532.7	5	9
All figures are in thousands of tonnes and percentage.
All the percentages are rounded off after the decimal point.

By: Tomomi Yokomura
+65 6780 4359

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