Japan's Showa Denko restarts Oita etac plant

06 April 2012 05:02  [Source: ICIS news]

MELBOURNE (ICIS)--Japan’s Showa Denko on 4 April restarted its joint-venture 100,000 tonne/year ethyl acetate (etac) plant in Oita, a market source said on Friday.

Another market source said the plant is running at about 60-70% of capacity, after a company source declined to give operational details because of company policy.

The etac unit was taken off line around mid-March because of a feedstock supply shortage caused by the extended shutdown of Showa Denko’s cracker at Oita.

The plant, which is operated under Japan Ethyl Acetate, is 55% owned by Showa Denko and 45% owned by KH Neochem (formerly Kyowa Hakko Chemical).

In addition to the Oita facility, Showa Denko operates a 50,000 tonne/year etac plant at Merak in Indonesia.

In 2010, Showa Denko closed down its 150,000 tonne/year etac plant at Tokuyama in Yamaguchi prefecture because of the business climate in Japan, a company source said at the time.

By: Trisha Huang

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