Ethylene prices in Asia stagnated at last week's US$1190/MT in the week of November 19, 2007, despite higher bids from Chinese buyers that rose concurrently with growing demand from China. Markets did not move much as buying sentiments from South Korea and Taiwan remained weaker at US$1200/MT CFR level. Buying sentiments in Taiwan were dampened by operation of Formosa's no.2 naphtha cracker at near full rate. Optimistic demand from domestic downstream producers has led to a cutback in exports by South Korean suppliers. Ethylene supply has also been affected by two shutdowns: The unplanned shutdown at PT Chandra Asri's PE plant due to which the Indonesian company has kept run rates at 75-80% capacity at its recently expanded 590,000 tpa naphtha cracker in AnyerJapan's Nippon Petrochemicals Co. Ltd. 404,000 tpa cracker at Kawasaki that is closed due to outage on Nov 9.
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