Japan plans maintenance at 7 naphtha crackers in 2018

Tosoh

05/01/2018 02:06

TOKYO, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Seven naphtha crackers in Japan are expected to be 
shut in 2018 for scheduled maintenance, industry and company sources said. 
    That is up from three crackers that underwent planned maintenance shutdowns 
last year as turnarounds that are conducted once every two or four years usually 
concentrate in even-numbered years, the sources said. 
    Mitsubishi Chemical  4188.T  plans to shut its 539,000 tonnes per year 
naphtha cracker from May 9 to July 3, followed by a scheduled restart on July 4, 
a company spokesman said. 
    Other ethylene manufacturers operating crackers include oil refiner JXTG 
Nippon Oil & Energy  5020.T , and Osaka Petrochemical Industries Ltd, a 
wholly-owned unit of Mitsui Chemicals  4183.T . 
    Keiyo Ethylene is 55 percent owned by Maruzen Petrochemical Co and 45 
percent by Sumitomo Chemical Co  4005.T . Maruzen Petrochemical is a subsidiary 
of Cosmo Energy Holdings  5021.T . 
    Tonen Chemical Corp is part of JXTG group. Showa Denko  4004.T  and Tosoh 
Corp  4042.T  also operate naphtha crackers. Asahi Kasei Mitsubishi Chemical 
Ethylene Corp, a 50-50 joint venture of Asahi Kasei Chemicals  3407.T  and 
Mitsubishi Chemical  4188.T , operates a naphtha cracker in Mizushima, western 
Japan. 
    The following table shows manufacturers' nominal ethylene production 
capacity per year and expected shutdown periods. Figures are in 1,000 tonnes per 
year. Capacity is based on the trade ministry's data and the companies. 
     
         Firm     Cracker  Capacity                          Shutdown period 
      M'bishi     Kashima       539            May 9-July 3 (restart:July 4) 
  Asahi Kasei   Mizushima       567                                     none 
      M'bishi                         
  Mitsui Chem    Ichihara       612                                     none 
        Osaka       Osaka       500                       mid-June-late July 
     Idemitsu       Chiba       414                                     none 
     Idemitsu    Tokuyama       687                          around Sept-Oct 
      Maruzen       Chiba       525                                     none 
        Keiyo       Chiba       768           mid-May to end-June/early July 
  Showa Denko        Oita       691             March-April (about 2 months) 
        Tosoh   Yokkaichi       527  early March-late April (about 2 months) 
        Tonen    Kawasaki       540             Aug-end-Sept (about 45 days) 
         JXTG    Kawasaki       443                                     none 
        Total                 6,813                                          
    
 
 (Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori in TOKYO and Seng Li Peng in SINGAPORE; editing 
by Richard Pullin) 
 ((osamu.tsukimori@thomsonreuters.com, +813 6441 1857)(Reuters Messaging: 
osamu.tsukimori.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: NAPHTHA JAPAN/MAINTENANCE