China accounts for major volume of ethylene exports

06 Jan '10

2 min read

According to trade statistics culled from the Finance Ministry, Japan's export volume of ethylene totaled 493,000 tons in the first 10 months of this year. Annual growth of Japan's ethylene exports in January and February was not large.

But export volume began to show a substantial increase from March onwards. Monthly export volume ranged in between 40,000-70,000 tons. From January to October, China was the largest export destination of Japan's ethylene exports.

Japan's ethylene exports to China registered 302,000 tons, shipments to South Korea amounted to 114,000 tons and ethylene exports to Taiwan realized 67,000 tons.

Analysts say that the surge in ethylene exports to China is mainly due to fast pickup of chemical fibre demand in China's market, especially demand of vinyl chloride monomer and styrene monomer driving increased demand for raw materials of ethylene.

Operating rate of Japanese ethylene crackers stood at only 70-79 percent in January to March in 2009, which rose to 80-89 percent in April, then gradually increased to 90-99 percent. Overall output from Japan's ethylene capacity is expected to reach 6.9 million tons in 2009.

Based on average export level of ethylene from January to October, Japan's export volume of ethylene is projected to touch 590,000 tons this year, which is equivalent to 8-9 percent of Japan's annual ethylene output.

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