Japan is expected to import an additional 100,000-150,000t of grey ammonia from 2027, following the closure of domestic ammonia producer and petrochemicals company Ube Chemicals.
Ube will idle its 330,000 t/yr ammonia plant in Japan by March 2028, citing declining profitability of its downstream caprolactam and nylon polymer production business.
Japan's total ammonia consumption is around 1mn t/yr, with domestic production fulfilling 800,000-900,000 t/yr of this. Imports typically amount to around 200,000 t/yr, but these have declined slightly this year to around 140,000-150,000 t/yr owing to poor downstream fundamentals in the chemicals industry.
The closure of Ube's ammonia plant in 2027-28 means Japan will likely need to increase its ammonia imports to fulfil the shortfall, with the additional supply potentially coming from southeast Asia or China.
Ube accounts for around 40pc of Japanese domestic ammonia production. Japan's remaining three ammonia producers are Mitsui Chemicals, Resonac and Nissan Chemicals, which have ammonia production capacities of 314,000 t/yr, 120,000 t/yr and 100,000 t/yr, respectively, accounting for 35pc, 13pc and 11pc of domestic production.
Ammonia is mainly used in Japan to produce petrochemicals, automotive-grade AdBlue urea or other urea derivatives, fertilizers and nitric acid. Japan's semiconductor industries also use ammonia, although they only require around 5,000 t/yr.
