Japan’s June C2 output down 5.5% from May

20 July 2007 14:00  [Source: ICIS news]

TOKYO (ICIS news)--Japan’s production of ethylene in June fell 5.5% compared with the previous month, industry figures showed on Friday.

The country produced 607,800 tonnes of ethylene in June, down from 643,200 tonnes in May, the Japan Petrochemical Industry Association (JPCA) said in a statement.

This was, however, a 1.4% increase from the same month a year ago.

The operating rate of the ethylene plants in June was 98.8%, down 0.8% month on month and up 0.3% year on year, the JPCA said.

Two plants operated by two companies were shut for turnarounds in June, while two plants run by two other firms also underwent turnarounds in May.

Three plants operated by two companies had turnarounds in June 2006.

Meanwhile, Japan’s exports of polymers rose significantly compared with the same time a year ago, with polystyrene (PS) recording the highest increase of 70% to 3,300 tonnes in June (see table 1).

This was, however, a 10% decrease from May.

June exports of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) recorded a 28% year-on-year rise to 24,400 tonnes, while polypropylene (PP) and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) rose 2% and 1% respectively.

The association also reports the country’s output of other petrochemical products (see table 2).

Products such as ethylene oxide (EO), ethylene glycol (EG), acetaldehyde and benzene had higher output compared with a year ago due to smaller turnaround programmes.

However, production of eight products including methacrylate (MMA) monomer, butadiene rubber (BR), toluene and xylenes fell.   

1. Japan polymer output and exports

 

		Output	Shipment
		‘000 tonnes	Japan	Exports	Total
LDPE	Quantity	149.6	133.5	24.4	157.9
	% change on month	-4	-4	4	-3
	% on year	7	3	28	6
HDPE	Quantity	89.4	85.2	8.2	93.4
	% change on month	10	0	-8	-1
	% on year	0	6	1	5
PP	Quantity	234.4	248.9	28.6	277.5
	% change on month	-12	6	-14	3
	% on year	22	8	2	8
PS	Quantity	66.8	75.5	3.3	78.8
	% change on month	-14	-4	-10	-4
	% on year	-4	-10	70	-8

2. Japan petrochemicals output and exports

Product	Output ‘000 tonnes	% change month on month	% change year on year
Ethylene	607.8	-6	1
LDPE	149.6	-4	7
HDPE	89.4	10	-0.2
PP	234.4	-12	22
PS	66.8	-14	-4
Styrene monomer	297.7	2	1
PVC (polyvinyl chloride)	163.4	8	3
VCM (vinyl chloride monomer)	234.1	-1	-1
MMA	40.4	-7	-10
EO	78.3	-7	20
EG	58.2	-13	42
Acetaldehyde	31.9	-2	14
Acrylonitrile	65.5	-3	1
SBR (solid)	34.2	-12	-1
Butadiene rubber (solid)	15.4	-37	-10
Benzene	373	-8	7
Toluene	117.5	-3	-14
Xylene	411.2	-8	-1
All figures are in thousands of tonnes and percentage.
All the percentages are rounded off after the decimal point.

Source: Japan Petrochemical Industry Association

By: Tomomi Yokomura
+65 6780 4359

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