Japan's Tosoh plans to restart its caustic soda plant in Nanyo, western Japan, around mid-June after completing annual maintenance, a company source said Tuesday. The 1.125 million mt/year plant was shut around the end of May.
Meanwhile, its 182,000 mt/year caustic soda plant in Yokkaichi, central Japan, is running normally. Asia's caustic soda supplies are currently tight due to Tosoh's turnaround as well as limited supplies from Taiwan's Formosa Plastics.
Formosa reduced its caustic soda exports significantly after an emergency shutdown of its 1.09 million mt/year plant at Mailiao May 12 following an LPG pipeline fire. Formosa's caustic soda supplies were reported to be still scarce, even after the unit was restarted last Wednesday.
