Japan's Sumitomo Chemical Co plans to mothball the ageing 415,000 tpa naphtha cracker at its Chiba plant from May 11, as per Reuters. To offset lost production, Sumitomo Chemical last month raised its stake in Maruzen Petrochemical Co's 55%-owned unit Keiyo Ethylene to 45% and will receive 59.4% of petrochemical output from the venture's naphtha cracker.
Though Sumitomo Chemical's cracker will be shut for good, the company plans to resume operations of downstream petrochemical units at the Chiba plant from the beginning of July, using petrochemical feedstock from Keiyo Ethylene's 768,000 tpa cracker located nearby, a Sumitomo Chemical spokesman said. Three naphtha crackers in Japan are scheduled to be closed between 2014 and 2016 in the face of declining domestic demand and stiff competition from newer ethylene plants in South Korea and Singapore. (Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori; Editing by Joseph Radford)
08-May-15 
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