Japan's Denki Kagaku Kogyo, or Denka, shut its 240,000 mt/year styrene monomer plant at Chiba over the weekend after the supply of ethylene from Maruzen Petrochemical was disrupted, a company source said Monday.
Maruzen shut its naphtha-fed steam cracker at Chiba in eastern Japan, on December 9 after a fire at some power transmission lines in the complex, a company source with Maruzen said earlier.
The cracker has the capacity to produce 480,000 mt/year of ethylene and 278,000 mt/year of propylene.
Denka's SM plant will be restarted after Maruzen's cracker has been restarted, but it remains unclear when that will happen, the source said. The plant was running at almost full capacity before the shutdown.
Meanwhile, Denka's subsidiary, Chiba Styrene Monomer Company, is running its 270,000 mt/year SM plant as per normal.
Chiba Styrene Monomer Company is a 60:40 joint venture between Denka and Sumitomo Chemical
