Source: Japan Petrochemical Industry Association By John Richardson JAPAN’S petrochemicals industry remains in consolidation mode, as my ICIS colleague Nigel Davis writes in this article. And, as the chart above shows, Japan’s ethylene output continues to fall. It was down 8% to 6.146 million tonnes in 2012 year-on-year. Future consolidation includes: *Mitsubishi Chemical’s planned closure of […]
Asian Chemical Connections
IOC Defers PX/PTA, Proceeds With Acetic Acid, Butene-1
By Malini Hariharan The blog continues with a review of Indian projects. State-owned refinery major Indian Oil Corp (IOC) has deferred its paraxylene (PX) and purified terephthalic acid (PTA) projects at Vadodara in Gujarat state, to post 2015. “The project is on hold because of commercial issues; we are looking at the total PX/PTA picture […]
Japan Disaster: Plants and markets update
By Malini Hariharan Japan’s benzene supply is expected to drop by 10% following plant shutdowns and diversion of product for gasoline blending, reports my colleague Mahua Chakravarty. This works out to about 40,000 tonnes/month, which is lower than the initial estimate of 100,000 tonnes/month made immediately after the earthquake. Traders have started booking cargoes from […]
Japan Disaster – Plants update
By Malini Hariharan More companies are reporting damages to facilities after last week’s earthquake and tsunami. Mitsubishi Chemical said in a statement that berths, roads and infrastructure around the plant area at its Kashima site have been damaged and delivery or shipment of cargo “would be next to impossible”. “Restoration of capabilities will take quite […]
Japan Disaster – Some petchem plants shut; markets stable
By Malini Hariharan News is slowly trickling in on the status of Japanese petrochemical plants. Only four of the country’s 14 crackers have shut down while a few are running at reduced rates, reports ICIS news. JX Nippon Oil & Energy has shut its 460,000 tonnes/year cracker at Kawasaki while Maruzen Petrochemical has shut its […]
Japan More Competitive Than You Might Think
Tokyo at nightSource of picture: liveworldtours.com By Malini Hariharan it is easy to write off the Japanese petrochemicals industry which has for long struggled to find a solution to the dual pressure of rising global competition and an anaemic home market. Japanese companies, once at the forefront of the Asian industry, have […]
More action needed at Mitsubishi Chem
By Malini Hariharan Japan’s largest chemical company Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings has been actively restructuring this year but more needs to be done to complete its transformation. High on the list is reorganization of its cracker operations at Mizushima. Mitsubishi and Asahi, which also has a cracker at the same site, have been talking since 2007 […]
Jump to page: