Japan's Kaneka restarts 178,000 mt/year Kashima PVC plant after quake

https://www.chemnet.com   Apr 27,2011 Platts

Japan vinyls producer Kaneka restarted its 178,000 mt/year PVC plant in Kashima, eastern Japan, Monday after an unplanned shutdown following the March 11 earthquake, a company official said Tuesday.

The source said it was still early to say when the operating rates will hit 100% as this also depends on the state of utility facilities in Kashima.

With the Kaneka plant restart, two of the three PVC plants in eastern Japan that were shut following the March 11 earthquake were running as of Monday.

Japan's Taiyo Vinyl restarted its 90,000 mt/year Chiba plant late March, while Shin-Etsu Chemical plans to restart its 550,000 mt/year PVC plant in Kashima late May.

Meanwhile, market sources said Japan, which is one of the largest PVC exporters in Asia, imported around 10,000 mt of PVC in order to cover the production shortfall after the quake. The sources said Japan will continue to import PVC for the time being even though PVC plants are restarting.

"PVC producers will prioritize and produce special-grade PVC after restarting in order to supply their special customers," a market source said. "I think the producers will continue importing commodity-grade PVC from Asia," he added.

PVC PLANT STATUS IN EASTERN JAPAN

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