China's imports of butadiene in July more than doubled to 34,664 mt from 13,941 mt received in June, customs data released Wednesday showed.
Year on year, the July import figure was eight times higher than 4,275 mt in the same month last year.
Among the factors for the import spike was Sinopec Yangzi Petrochemical shutting one of its two naphtha-fed steam crackers and associated butadiene extraction unit at Nanjing, Jiangsu province, on July 15 for 45 days. The butadiene unit has a design capacity of 100,000 mt/year.
CHINA'S BUTADIENE IMPORTS (mt) Source Jul '12 Jun '12 % change South Korea 19,807 9,037 119.2 Netherlands 5,650 0 NA Italy 3,695 0 NA Malaysia 2,019 0 NA Taiwan 1,499 1,499 unchanged Japan 1,002 0 NA Singapore 1,000 2,905 - 65.6 Iran 0 500 -100.0 *Total 34,664 13,941 148.6
