Japan’s imports of naphtha used to produce ethylene, increased in the fiscal year of April 2019 to March 2020, according to data from the ministry of economy, trade and industry (METI) seen by SSESSMENTS.COM. The data showed that Japan imported 14.1 million tons of naphtha as a feedstock for ethylene production in the period, rising by 5.4% from the previous FY.
Ethylene production in FY 2019-2020 increased by 1.4% from FY 2018-2019 to 6.3 million tons. The increase is attributed to the higher number of operational crackers in the period. According to METI, there were ten ethylene crackers under mandatory maintenance during FY 2019-2020, compared to 14 units in the previous FY.
Imports of naphtha as petrochemical feedstock rose 13.7% year-on-year to 1.3 million tons in March. However, ethylene output was down 19.4% to 453,600 tons during the month as two crackers were under regular maintenance, compared to zero a year earlier.
On a cost basis, Japan’s import of Naphtha in March reached $537.40/ton. The cost was 5.9% higher than in March a year ago, but 7.6% lower compared to February.
