Restart of Mitsubishi Chem’s No 2 Kashima naphtha cracker uncertain

12-Oct-12

Mitsubishi Chemical Corp said on Thursday it was unclear when its No.2 naphtha cracker in Kashima would resume operations following the unit's closure this week after a power outage, but traders say it could be as much as two weeks, as per Reuters. The cracker has annual capacity of 489,000 tons of ethylene when no maintenance is planned. The market expects the cracker to resume operations in about two weeks. The two week shutdown is unlikely to lead to deferring of naphtha feedstock cargoes by the plant. A 14-day halt in operations would result in lost demand of about 60,000 tons of naphtha, or two medium-size vessels. Additionally, Taiwan's Formosa Petrochemical Corp has cut operational rates at its 2.93 mln tpa cracking complex in Mailiao to 80% following a fire at a plant run by its sister company, Nan Ya Plastics, forcing the company to defer 60,000 tons of naphtha to November from October.