In contrast to this years' heavy turnaround schedule, Japan's petrochem majors plan to shut only five naphtha crackers for maintenance in 2007. This will maintain a steady supply to the markets and could give some lift to the bearish naphtha market. This compares with seven companies that had turnarounds on 8 crackers in 2006. Many of these planned shutdowns coincided within their two or four-year cycles.
However, Asia's naphtha market fundamentals are not expected to change dramatically in H1-2007 and are expected to continue to remain bearish. H1 demand will be affected by shutdowns at South Korea's LG Chem Ltd. in March and Samsung Total Petrochemicals Co. Ltd. in April for upgrades, as well the delayed start-up of Taiwan's Formosa Petrochemical Corp. new 1.2 million tpa ethylene plant. However, as new output capacity comes on stream in the second-half, the market is expected to rebound sharply.
16-Oct-06 
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