South Korea's May exports of acrylonitrile increased 50.2% month on month to 35,249 mt, according to data released Saturday by the Korea Customs Service.
The May exports were nearly four times those of May 2012, when South Korea exported 8,847 mt as producers cut operating rates due to low demand and falling prices.
Exports to key destination China jumped 49.1% from April to 22,879 mt in May. Sources attributed the increase to scheduled maintenance by Anqing Petrochemical and Jilin Petrochemical.
Exports to Thailand were 5,748 mt in May, 2.3 times higher than those in April, and exports to Malaysia rose 13% to 4,381 mt in May.
South Korea sent more ACN to Southeast Asia as a result of maintenance at Japanese Asahi Kasei's 200,000 mt/year ACN plant in Map Ta Phut, Thailand. The facility was shut in mid-May, and the company pushed back the expected mid-June restart without setting a new restart target.
South Korea imported 7,970 mt of ACN in May, up 13.9% from April. Imports from the US fell 21.4% month on month to 5,500 mt, and imports from Japan stood at 1,951 mt, compared with none in April.
