The Chiba plant has three PP lines, and the closure of 70,000 tpy line will reduce production capacity to 845,000 tpy from the existing 915,000 tpy.
Earlier in April this year, the company closed a 106,000 tpy PP line in Ibaraki prefecture. The PP line closures is due to optimisation of production facilities while enhancing competitiveness of PP products.
Since the cost of PP production is low in the Middle East and Asia-Pacific, there is a decrease in demand for Japanese PP, particularly general-purpose products, necessitating optimisation of production, according to Japan Polypropylene.
In the first-half of 2020, Japan produced 1 million tons of PP, showing a decline of almost 13 per cent compared to the same period of the last year, as per the data from the Japan petrochemical industry association.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (RKS)