Two of the largest oxo-alcohols producers in Japan cut the runs of their plants to 80% from near 100% late last week to tackle low demand, a source close to the companies said Tuesday.
The two plants are Mitsubishi Chemical's 145,000 mt/year of 2-ethyl hexanol and 95,000 mt/year of normal butanol plant at Mizushima and Kyowa Hakko's 130,000 mt/year NBA and 120,000 mt/year of 2-EH plant at Yokkaichi.
"The buying ideas are very low and we cannot offer our products at such prices," a source at Kyowa Hakko said.
"We don't even have buyers coming up with firm bids," a Chinese trader who deals in Japanese cargoes said.
In domestic China markets 2-EH dropped Yuan 200/mt to Yuan 11,000/mt ($1,725/mt) and NBA slid Yuan 100/mt to Yuan 9,600/mt. So far in November 2-EH dropped $145/mt to $1,395/mt CFR China on November 24. NBA dropped $20/mt to $1,225/mt CFR China over the same period.
