Japan's Asahi Kasei plans to reduce ACN rates

09 July 2008 09:58  [Source: ICIS news]

TOKYO (ICIS news)--Asahi Kasei Chemicals plans to start reducing acrylonitrile (ACN) production by the end of July due to the decreased operating rate of its cracker, a spokesman at the Japanese chemical producer said on Wednesday.

The spokesman declined to specify how much ACN would be reduced, but said “it will be an amount commensurate with the reduction of its feedstock (ethylene)”.

The company has a total of three ACN units in Mizushima, Okayama prefecture, and Kawasaki, Kanagawa prefecture, with a combined capacity of 500,000 tonnes/year.

Asahi Kasei Chemicals had started operating its 470,000 tonnes/year cracker at Mizushima, operated by its subsidiary Sanyo Petrochemical, at reduced operating rates of 95% starting this week, the spokesman said.

This was because demand for its downstream products, styrene monomer (SM) and polystyrene (PS), was sluggish, especially in Japan, due to elevated costs of feedstocks such as crude oil, naphtha and benzene, the spokesman said.

The company had been reducing SM production at Mizushima by 15% of the total capacity since May, he added.

Asahi Kasei Chemicals normally produces a total of 678,000 tonnes/year of SM in Mizushima.

The spokesman said the reduction of production would last “until demand comes back.”

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By: Tomomi Yokomura
+65 6780 4359

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