Japan's polymer producers Japan Polyethylene, Japan Polypropylene and Prime Polymer will raise their polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) sales prices starting from April delivery, the firms have announced.
Japan Polyethylene plans to raise all its PE sales prices by more than ¥90/kg ($0.56/kg), while Japan Polypropylene aims to increase all its PP sales prices by more than ¥80/kg, the companies said on 19 March. Fellow polymer producer Prime Polymer will also raise its PE and PP sales values by more than ¥90/kg starting from April, the firm announced on 17 March.
The companies foresee domestic naphtha prices to rise above ¥100,000-110,000/kl along with surge in crude oil prices, due to the US-Israel war with Iran.
The increases are larger than the price hikes of more than ¥45/kg in March 2022 for both Japan Polyethylene's PE and Japan Polypropylene's PP, in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Prime Polymer's price increases are also larger than its previous PE and PP price hikes in March 2022 which were over ¥35/kg.
Japan Polyethylene and Japan Polypropylene also expect shortages of feedstock ethylene and propylene to impact polymer production. But they declined to disclose further details of their manufacturing situations, including current plant operating rates and output volumes. Prime Polymer also cited the uncertainty of naphtha and consequently its procurement of feedstock ethylene and propylene. But the company did not respond to Argus' inquiry for further details.
Japan Polyethylene has low-density PE output capacity of 562,000 t/yr and high-density PE production capacity of 423,000 t/yr, according to the Japanese ministry of economy, trade and industry (Meti)'s latest survey as of the end of 2024. The firm is held 58pc by Mitsubishi Chemical's wholly-owned subsidiary Japan Polychem and 42pc by petrochemical firm Japan Polyolefine, a joint venture of refiner Eneos and petrochemical firm Resonac.
Japan Polypropylene owns PP production capacity of 765,000 t/yr, Meti's survey shows. The company is held 65pc by Japan Polychem and 35pc by JNC Petrochemical, a wholly-owned subsidiary of chemical producer Chisso.
Prime Polymer owns manufacturing capacities of 600,000 t/yr PE and 1.26mn t/yr PP. The company is held 65pc by domestic petrochemical producer Mitsui Chemicals and 35pc by refiner Idemitsu.
Other Japanese petrochemical companies have faced similar issues. Kaneka will also raise sales prices of its polyvinyl chloride (PVC) by more than ¥35/kg because of rising feedstock costs, while Shin-Etsu has reduced domestic PVC output and will increase domestic sales prices for PVC by more than ¥30/kg.
