China's July propylene imports surge 62% on higher Saudi Arabian imports

25-Aug-11

China's propylene imports in July totaled 157,547 mt, surging 62% from 97,336 mt in June, due to a sudden influx of Saudi Arabia-origin cargoes amid downstream plant outages there, the latest data released Tuesday by Chinese Customs showed. As per Platts, on a year-on-year basis, the imports rose 25.9%. From levels of zero Saudi propylene imports in June and July 2010, China imported 20,351 mt of propylene from Saudi Arabia in July. Several polypropylene plants were shut in Saudi Arabia for maintenance. Among them was Saudi Arabia's National Petrochemical Industrial Company's (Natpet) 400,000 tpa PP plant at Yanbu for 60 days from May 1. Saudi Arabia's Al Waha Petrochemicals Company also shut its 450,000 tpa PP plant in Jubail for two weeks in late July. July imports also increased from three key regions Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. China's imports from Japan rose 72.6% from a month earlier to 18,976 mt, from South Korea they were up 7.5% month on month to 72,352 mt, and from Taiwan imports jumped 100% from the previous month to 19,453 mt.