South Korea naphtha imports fall 17% in April

05 June 2008 09:02  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)—South Korea’s naphtha imports fell 17% in April as two cracker operators shut their facilities for turnarounds, a industry source said on Thursday.

 

Figures from the Korea International Trade Association (KITA) indicated that South Korea’s naphtha imports in April was at 1.25m tonnes, a decline of 17% from 1.5m tonnes in March.

 

The key reason cited for the lower naphtha imports was attributed to the shutdown of two crackers belonging to Lotte Daesan and Korea Petrochemicals Ind Co (KPIC), for turnarounds.

 

Naphtha imports from China fell sharply, with only 103,000 tonnes of naphtha imported from China in April, down 46% from the 191,000 tonnes imported in the previous month.

 

India was the net exporter of naphtha to South Korea, with a total of 298,000 tonnes in April, compared to 271,000 tonnes in March.

 

South Korea is one of the largest producers of ethylene in Asia with a combined capacity of more than 6m tonnes/year.

 

By: Brian Myung
65 6780 4359

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