Japan's ethylene output rises 7.3% in Oct - JPCA

16 November 2007 08:06  [Source: ICIS news]

TOKYO (ICIS news)--Japan’s October ethylene (C2) output rose 7.3% compared with the previous month primarily due to higher operating rates, statistics from a local industry association showed on Friday.

 

The country produced 659,200 tonnes of C2 in October, an increase of 45,100 tonnes in September, the Japan Petrochemical Industry Association (JPCA) said in a statement, and a 1.9% increase from a year earlier.

 

The number of days the country’s C2 plants operated in October increased 3.3% from September, while it was unchanged from October 2006.

 

Total operating rates of the country’s ethylene plants in October were 98.1%, up 1.2% month on month and down 2.3% year on year.

 

In October, one facility was shut for a turnaround, unchanged from September or the same period the previous year.

 

Meanwhile, Japan’s exports of low-density polyethylene (LDPE), high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and polypropylene (PP) in October decreased from September, primarily because of the influence of the consecutive holidays in China due to the country’s national day, JPCA said.

 

However, exports of LDPE, HDPE, PP and polystyrene (PS) increased year on year. Exports of PS for use in digital home appliances were steady.

 

Among the 17 products other than ethylene the association reports on, nine products including polyvinyl chloride (PVC), acrylonitrile (ACN) and butadiene rubber (BR) had higher output in October compared with the previous month.

 

This was due to an increase in the days the plants were in operation, and also because the autumn turnaround period of plants had almost ended and most of the facilities had already resumed.

 

Year on year, the production of 15 chemicals including vinyl chloride monomer (VCM), methyl methacrylate (MMA) monomer and ethylene oxide (EO) increased due to the difference in scales of turnarounds, the association said.

 

Japan polymer exports in October ('000 tonnes)

		Exports
LDPE	Quantity	16.7
	% change on month	-5
	% on year	8
HDPE	Quantity	9
	% change on month	-2
	% on year	7
PP	Quantity	25.2
	% change on month	-13
	% on year	67
PS	Quantity	6.1
	% change on month	51
	% on year	283

Japan petrochemicals output in October

Product	output ('000 tonnes)	% change month-on-month	% change year-on- year
Ethylene	659.2	7	2
LDPE	166.7	32	1
HDPE	94.3	-3	1
PP	277.5	23	9
PS	70.3	-6	-17
Styrene monomer	273.1	0	14
PVC	186.8	2	-1
Vinyl chloride monomer	275.2	1	8
MMA monomer	42	-6	8
Ethylene oxide	87.7	0	8
Ethylene glycol	66.7	0	5
Acetaldehyde	27.4	-2	13
ACN	60.6	7	20
SBR (solid)	41.5	-6	7
Butadiene rubber (solid)	23.3	30	12
Benzene	437	3	2
Toluene	134.9	6	2
Xylene	480.9	-3	2

All percentages are rounded off after the decimal point

By: Tomomi Yokomura
+65 6780 4359

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Links posted in this story:

• Acrylonitrile
,
• Benzene
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• Butadiene
,
• Ethylene
,
• Ethylene Oxide
,
• Ethylene Glycol, Mono
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• Polyethylene high density
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• Polyethylene linear low density
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• Methyl methacrylate
,
• Polypropylene