Japan’s Mitsui Chemicals Polyurethanes shuts both TDI plants

15 January 2009 11:06  [Source: ICIS news]

TOKYO (ICIS news)--Mitsui Chemicals Polyurethanes has shut both its toluene di-isocyanate (TDI) units in Japan and plans to further reduce production due to worsening demand, a company official said on Thursday.

"Demand is still not recovering," the official said.

The company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsui Chemicals, shut its 120,000 tonne/year TDI facility at Omuta, in Fukuoka prefecture, the official said.

It shut its 117,000 tonnes/year TDI unit at Kashima, in Ibaraki prefecture, on 20 December.

The official said the company was considering a restart of the Kashima TDI unit either in February or March.

The company was still discussing when to restart the Omuta plant, which it said would be shut for a longer term.

Both units would certainly remain offline in January, he said.

The producer was also considering moving forward the turnaround periods of the TDI and MDI units by one or two months as part of measures to reduce production, but specific dates had not been decided, the official said.

Mitsui Chemicals Polyurethanes had restarted its 60,000 tonne/year methyl di-p-phenylene isocyanate (MDI) unit at Omuta at the beginning of January. It had been taken offline due to weak demand in China and elsewhere in Asia, the official said.

The current operating rate of the unit was 60-70%, he said.

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By: Tomomi Yokomura
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