NEW DELHI: Asia’s naphtha markets steadied on Friday after tumbling nearly 20% in the last session on fears of slowing demand due to high prices of the light fuel.

The refining profit margin for naphtha was up 5 cents at $171.70 a tonne.

“We are seeing that in most of the naphtha crackers in Asia, people have just cut down their production or they have restarted annual turnarounds,” said Rajesh Rawat, senior vice president and business head, cracker at Reliance Industries during the Asia Refining and Petrochemical Summit.

Mitsui Chemicals on Tuesday said it will shut down its purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plant in Japan in August 2023 amid dwindling demand. “A sharp rise in PTA manufacturing facilities, primarily in China, from the mid-2000s caused a slowdown in the market condition, which was coupled with a fall in Japanese domestic demand,” the Japanese producer said in a statement.

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