MOSCOW (MRC) -- Japan's Tosoh Corp has brought on-stream its naphtha cracker following a planned outage, according to Apic-online.
A Polymerupdate source in Japan informed that, the company resumed operations at the cracker on April 20, 2020. The cracker was shut for maintenance on March 4, 2020.
Located at Yokkaichi in Japan, the cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 527,000 mt/year and a propylene production capacity of 315,000 mt/year.
As MRC reported earlier, Tosoh Corp restarted its 527,000 tpa naphtha cracker in Yokkaichi, central Japan, in mid-Apirl, 2016, after planned maintenance. The cracker was shut on 8 March, 2016.
The company runs two low-density polyethylene (LDPE) lines with a combined production capacity of 56,000 mt/year and a 43,000 mt/year LDPE/ ethyl vinyl acetate (EVA) swing plant at the same site. It also runs 120,000 mt/year high density polyethylene (HDPE) plant.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, estimated PE consumption totalled 383,760 tonnes in the first two month of 2020, up by 14% year on year. High density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments increased due to the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 192,760 tonnes in January-February 2020, down by 6% year on year. Homopolymer PP accounted for the main decrease in imports.
Tosoh is one of the largest chlor-alkali manufacturers in Asia. The company supplies the plastic resins and an array of the basic chemicals that support modern life. Tosoh's petrochemical operations supply ethylene, polymers, and polyethylene.
MRC