Table: Japan ethylene output capacity drops to 6.81 million tpy

Tosoh

19/04/2016 07:19

TOKYO, April 19 (Reuters) - Japan's ethylene production 
capacity has fallen by 504,000 tonnes per year (tpy) to 6.81 
million tpy in mid-February to take into account the permanent 
closure of a naphtha cracker, a trade ministry official said on 
Tuesday. 
    Asahi Kasei Chemicals, part of Asahi Kasei Corp  4005.T ,  
shut its 504,000 tonnes-per-year Mizushima naphtha cracker 
permanently during the middle of February; by that time its 
capacity was withdrawn from Japan's total, the trade ministry 
official stated. 
    The following table describes manufacturers' current 
ethylene production capacity per year, compared with the end of 
2014 and 2015, according to the ministry data.  
    Units are in 1,000 tonnes per year. The capacity data 
assumes no planned maintenance during a year. 
    The manufacturers include oil refiners Idemitsu Kosan Co  
 5019.T , JX Nippon Oil & Energy  5020.T , and Osaka 
Petrochemical Industries Ltd, a wholly owned unit of Mitsui 
Chemicals  4183.T .  
    Keiyo Ethylene is owned 55 percent by Maruzen Petrochemical 
Co and the rest by Sumitomo Chemical  4005.T . Maruzen is a unit 
of Cosmo Energy Holdings  5021.T . 
    The move, which follows the closure of a cracker run by 
Sumitomo chemical last May, is the latest industry attempt to 
tighten supplies amid declining demand for domestic 
petrochemicals.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N0XY1WN 
    Asahi Kasei and Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings  4188.T  on 
April 1 this year integrated their naphtha-cracking operations 
by operating the latter's 570,000 tonnes-per-year Mizushima 
cracker jointly and scrapping the former's cracker. 
    Tonen Chemical Corp is wholly owned by TonenGeneral Sekiyu 
group  5012.T . Others are Showa Denko  4004.T , Tosoh Corp 
 4042.T  and Mitsubishi Chemical  4188.T . 
          Company   mid-Feb 2016  End-Dec 2015   End-Dec 2014 
 Asahi Kasei Chem             -            504           504  
   Idemitsu Kosan         1,101          1,101         1,101  
    Osaka Petchem           500            500           500  
   Keiyo Ethylene           768            768           768  
      Showa Denko           691            691           691  
    JX Nippon Oil           443            443           443  
    Sumitomo Chem             -              -           415  
            Tosoh           527            527           527  
   Tonen Chemical           540            540           540  
  Maruzen Petchem           525            525           525  
      Mitsui Chem           612            612           612  
  Mitsubishi Chem         1,106          1,106         1,032  
            Total         6,813          7,317         7,658  
  
 (Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; Editing by Sherry 
Jacob-Phillips) 
 ((osamu.tsukimori@thomsonreuters.com, +813 6441 1857, Reuters 
Messaging: osamu.tsukimori.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net;)) 
 
Keywords: NAPHTHA JAPAN/CAPACITY