Japan's Jan ethylene output up 0.4% from Dec

22 February 2007 07:35  [Source: ICIS news]

TOKYO (ICIS news)--Japan produced 0.4% more ethylene in January compared with the previous month, industry figures showed on Wednesday.

The country produced 697,700 tonnes of ethylene in January, up from 695,000 tonnes in December, the Japan Petrochemical Industry Association (JPCA) said in a statement.

The operating rate in January increased by 0.4% month-on-month and 1.2% year-on-year.

No plants were undergoing turnarounds in January or December.

January ethylene output was 1.5% higher than 10,400 tonnes the same time a year ago.

Out of the 17 other products listed by JPCA, 10 products including benzene and toluene had higher output compared with the month before, while seven products including polystyrene (PS) and acrylonitrile (ACN) had lower output partly due to certain factors of the plants’ operations.

Of the four resin products, production of high-density polyethylene (hdPE), low-density polyethylene (ldPE) and polypropylene (PP) rose month-on-month, and production of ldPE and hdPE fell year-on-year.

Meanwhile, exports of ldPE and PP in January fell compared with the previous month, while exports of hdPE and PS increased from the yea-ago period.

On year-on-year comparison, less ldPE and PP were exported this year, and more hdPE and PS were exported in January 2007 compared with January 2006.

		Jan-07	% change on month	% change on year
ethylene		697.7	0.4	1.5
LDPE		165.7	4	-1
HDPE		100.9	8	-4
PP		284.5	1	2
styrene	polymer	76.6	-3	3
	monomer	321.7	2	1
vinyl chloride	polymer	183.3	0	-2
	monomer	281.3	1	-7
MMA monomer		48.6	-8	-12
ethylene oxide		91.1	1	-1
ethylene glycol		77.8	6	0
acetaldehyde		31.4	0	1
ACN		61.7	-8	3
SBR (solid)		44.8	0	4
butadiene rubber (solid)		21	-20	-21
aromatics	benzene	482.8	2	5
aromatics	toluene	154.8	7	0
aromatics	xylene	539.3	1	6
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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