Japan's Asahi Kasei Chemicals to shut cracker permanently

According to market sources, Asahi Kasei Chemicals will shut its cracker permanently by mid-Feb 2016 as a result of the ongoing rationalisation of the country’s petrochemical industry. Based in Mizushima, Japan, the cracker has an annual ethylene capacity of 504,000 t/year and 300,000 t/year of propylene. 

The shutdown come less than a year after Sumitomo Chemical Co mothballed its 415,000 t/year naphtha cracker in Chiba, Japan during May 2015. Over the past two years, three crackers which account for aproximate 1.3 million t/year of ethylene in Japan have been permanently closed down due to ageing facilities, low domestic demand, stiff competition from Middle East, Singapore and South Korea in addition to the high costs, as per Reuter.

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