Mitsubishi Restarts Kashima Cracker; to Expand PVC Compounds Unit in Thailand

摘要

Mitsubishi Chemical says it has today restarted production at the company's No. 2 naphtha cracker at Kashima, Japan. The 453,000-m.t./year No. 2 cracker was taken offline due to damage caused by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. As previously announced, the company has delayed a planned maintenance turnaround at the No. 2 naphtha cracker until the end of August from an originally planned start date of June 30. Some lines of the company's polyethylene and polypropylene production facilities will also restart soon, Mitsubishi says. The company plans to restart shipping its products as soon as the quality has been tested. Mitsubishi's No. 1 cracker at Kashima, which has also been offline since the earthquake and tsunami, is currently undergoing scheduled maintenance and is due to restart by June 27. The two Kashima crackers have combined capacity for about 830,000 m.t./year of ethylene.