Japan has secured enough supplies to cover at least four months of its demand for naphtha, said Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, as the government seeks to ease concerns over a potential supply crunch.
The supplies include about two months of shipments procured from abroad and volume from domestic refiners, as well as an additional two months of inventories of intermediate chemical products derived from naphtha, such as polyethylene, Takaichi said on a post on X on Sunday.
Japan gets around 60% of its naphtha from overseas and relies on the Middle East for over 70% of those imports, according to the Japan Petrochemical Industry Association.
The nation¡¯s major naphtha producers have cut output of the oil byproduct, which is used in making such things as plastic bottles, construction materials and electrical appliances.
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