Japan's naphtha imports totalled 1.18mn t in October, down by 10pc on the year but up by 5pc on the month, according to the country's finance ministry.
Naphtha imports were lower on the year, given the continuous weakness in domestic petrochemical demand. This lowered cracker operating rates, which have been weakening since July, by 5.2 percentage points from a year earlier to 77.4pc in October, according to Japan Petrochemical Industry Association (JPCA).
Cracker operating rates below 90pc indicate weakness in petrochemical consumption and the Japanese economy, JPCA said. The rates have been below 90pc since August 2022.
Against a backdrop of weaker petrochemical consumption, ethylene production by domestic crackers in October fell by 7.4pc on the year to 414,500t.
On a year-on-year basis, polypropylene and polyvinyl chloride output dropped by 5pc and by 12pc to 174,000t to 121,100t, respectively. Acrylonitrile output fell by 32pc to 21,300t, while styrene-butadiene rubber production stood at 15,600t, down by 25pc on the year.
Aromatics xylene and benzene output fell by 2.6pc to 328,200t and by 1.5pc to 232,500t, respectively.
| Japan naphtha imports (t) | |||||
| Oct-24 | Oct-23 | Sep-24 | y-o-y % ± | m-o-m % ± | |
| Saudi Arabia | 40,663 | 82,359 | 137,722 | -70 | -51 |
| UAE | 414,109 | 306,886 | 564,083 | -27 | 35 |
| Kuwait | 205,941 | 284,441 | 109,249 | 89 | -28 |
| Qatar | 148,927 | 147,786 | 195,703 | -24 | 1 |
| Bahrain | 0 | 55,054 | 24,632 | -100 | -100 |
| South Korea | 179,544 | 92,986 | 89,023 | 102 | 93 |
| Malaysia | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | - |
| India | 38,742 | 0 | 8,516 | 355 | - |
| China | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | - |
| Indonesia | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | - |
| Singapore | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | - |
| Thailand | 0 | 28,421 | 27,165 | -100 | -100 |
| Russia | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | - |
| Australia | 0 | 0 | 66,854 | -100 | - |
| US | 70,425 | 54,440 | 26,448 | 166 | 29 |
| Others | 79,178 | 69,289 | 60,090 | 32 | 14 |
| Total | 1,177,530 | 1,121,663 | 1,309,486 | -10 | 5 |
| Source: Finance ministry | |||||
