Petrochemical production for long has been the forte of Japanese manufacturers and includes well known names like Sumitomo, Mitsubishi, Asahi Kasei, UBE, Mitsui etc. But the developments which began from the second half of 2008 have put most of these companies on life support systems.
Most of these companies had either closed down or partially cut production capacities, due to the drop in demand from the downstream sectors, more so from August 2008 onwards, even before the financial turmoil in the United States had unfolded and which had more so to do with the galloping prices of crude oil.
According to estimates, ethylene production in Japan, which is the feedstock for Mono Ethyl Glycol and Polyethylene, has seen it crumbling by more than 23 percent y-o-y in the month of February 2009, which makes it the sixth consecutive month to record double digit negative growth rates in ethylene output.
According to data made available by the relevant department of Industry and Trade, ethylene production fell to 463,200 tons in February 2009, compared with 606,800 tons in February 2008 and 501,300 tons in January 2009. Incidentally, no maintenance related shutdowns were reported by any of the companies in February.
Fibre2fashion News Desk - India
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