Japan was hit last week by the biggest earthquake in 100 years. The loss to the industrial economy is expected to be huge.
The petrochemical sector is also expected to suffer huge losses. East Chiba is a cluster for petrochemical units in Japan and is also near to the epicenter of the earthquake.
China imports a large volume of various key petrochemicals like PX, PTA and ethylene annually.
China imported 1.003 million tons of PX and 350,000 tons of PTA from Japan in 2010.
It is expected that discontinued production in petrochemical plants in Chiba may create shortage and also lead to a rise in prices of various petrochemicals.