China's paraxylene imports from South Korea in July jumped 20% from June, amid new PX plant startups in South Korea, data released Friday, August 22, by China's General Administration of Customs showed.
China imported 267,861 mt of PX from South Korea in July, up 45,408 mt from the previous month.
China's total PX imports in July, meanwhile, edged up just 0.8% to 680,833 mt in July, according to the data.
The rise in shipments from South Korea comes amid two PX plant startups there in July.
SK Innovation brought online its 1.3 million mt/year PX plant in Incheon on July 17, while Samsung Total's 1 million mt/year No. 2 PX plant in Daesan began commercial operations on July 10, Platts reported previously.
The two plants were operating at 75-90% of capacity in July and successfully shipped out their monthly contracted cargoes to end-users, market sources said Friday.
But the rise in imports from South Korea was partially offset by a decline in imports from Japan amid PX run rates cut by Japan's JX Nippon Oil and Energy.
China's PX imports from Japan fell 28.2% month on month to 97,478 mt in July, the data showed.
JX said previously it would reduce its run rates to an average 60% of capacity over July-September, due to an expected regional oversupply from new PX plants startups, Platts reported previously.
