Asian processors, who are saddled with huge stockpiles, prefer to draw on their stocks to meet the needs of reduced production as they wait for demand to return to normalcy, demand in Asia has taken a hit. Cracker operators have an option to shut their plants or reduce operating rates in a bid to curtail the free fall in olefins and derivative prices. Poor economics has already forced shutdown at smaller crackers in Asia- including S K Energy's 190,000 tpa cracker in Ulsan and Shanghai Petrochemical's 150,000 tpa cracker in China. The ethylene plant shutdowns in Asia as per ICIS include:
Company Name Capacity (tpa) Location Shutdown dates
Mitsubishi Chemical 375,000 Kashima, Japan May-Jun
Mitsubishi Chemical 450,000 Mizushima, Japan May-Jun
Mitsubishi Chemical 476,000 Kashima, Japan Jul-Aug
Mitsui Chemicals 617,000 Ichihara, Japan Mid-Jul-mid-Aug
Formosa
Petrochemical Corp 700,000 Mailiao, Taiwan Sep-Oct
Yeocheon Naphtha
Cracking Centre 400,000 Yeocheon, South Korea Oct-Nov
Chinese
Petrochemical
Corp 230,000 Linyuan, Taiwan Nov (40-45 days)
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