China's July propylene imports surge 62% on higher Saudi Arabian imports

China's propylene imports in July totaled 157,547 mt, surging 62% from 97,336 mt in June, due to a sudden influx of Saudi Arabia-origin cargoes amid downstream plant outages there, the latest data released Tuesday by Chinese Customs showed.

On a year-on-year basis, the imports rose 25.9%.

China imported 20,351 mt propylene from Saudi Arabia in July, while in June and July 2010 it had not imported any from the Middle East nation.

Several polypropylene plants were shut in Saudi Arabia for maintenance. Among them was Saudi Arabia's National Petrochemical Industrial Company, or Natpet's 400,000 mt/year PP plant at Yanbu. It was shut for 60 days from May 1. Saudi Arabia's Al Waha Petrochemicals Company also shut its 450,000 mt/year PP plant in Jubail for two weeks in late July.

In addition, imports from three key regions -- Japan, South Korea and Taiwan -- all increased in July. China's imports from Japan rose 72.6% from a month earlier to 18,976 mt, from South Korea they were up 7.5% month on month to 72,352 mt, and from Taiwan imports jumped 100% from the previous month to 19,453 mt.