China's propylene imports in August totaled 145,649 mt, a 40% spike from the 103,703 mt received in the same month of 2010, data released Thursday by Chinese customs showed.
The rise was due cracker turnarounds in China and higher imports from several countries whose own demand for propylene decreased due to downstream outages.
In early August, Shanghai Secco Petrochemical shut its naphtha-fed steam cracker for a month of planned maintenance. The company has the capacity to produce 1.1 million mt/year of ethylene and 500,000 mt/year of propylene.
South Korea and Taiwan also accounted for the increase in imports.
The former shipped 80,209 mt last month to China, more than double the 36,628 mt sent in August 2010, while the latter exported 10,989 mt, compared with nil exports year on year.
Taiwan's Formosa Plastics shut its 400,000 mt/year polypropylene plant in Lin Yuan, Taiwan, on August 5, after a fire at feedstock supplier Formosa Petrochemical Corp.' Mailiao refinery on July 30.
