MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Japanese petrochemicals industry has been beset by declining domestic demand and the situation is unlikelyto improve radically in 2013 with growth set to decline, according to BMI's Japan petrochemicals report, reported MarketResearch.
The appreciation of the yen and competition from new plants starting up in the Middle East and Asia aggravated the situation of petrochemical industry in Japan, which is unlikelyto improve radically in 2013 with growth set to decline to 1.2% from 1.5% as the country struggles to find new markets and suffers because of weakening demand both at home and abroad. The competition is likely to be fierce with an additional 3.39m tonnes per annum (tpa) of ethylene capacity set to come online in Asia over 2013. Closures are planned over the next two years as Japanese producers seek torestructure operations, but a further slump in both domestic and regional markets could lead to permanent shut-downs.
Mitsubishi Chemical is set to reduce total ethylene capacity at its Kashima complex by 340,000 tpa, reducing total national capacity to 6.46mn tpa by 2017.
Tosoh's proposed restructuring of operations in Nanyo could lead to a net loss of 320,000 tpa of vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) capacity, thereby tightening feedstock supply to the polyvinylchloride (PVC) industry. Almost one year after a fire seriously damaged its complex in Nanyo, Tosoh Corporation (Tokyo, Japan) has touted plans to raise output at the site's number 3 vinyl chloride monomer plant. The building phase of the 200,000 t/y capacity expansion was to kick off in November this year, with completion scheduled for October 2014.
A total of 179,000 tpa of polypropylene (PP) capacity is scheduled to come offstream over the next two years, although low operating rates in the segment may prompt further reductions.
We remind that, as MRC informed earlier, in late October Mitsubishi Chemical Performance Polymers (MCPP) acquited a polyvinyl chloride compound plant in Bellevue, Ohio (USA) from A. Schulman, in a move to expand its presence in North America's polyvinyl chloride (PVC) compound market.
MRC