The Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011 destroyed many industrial facilities. The earthquake forced many firms to suspend production. Japan’s chemical supply chain was also hardly blown in a wide range.

Six months later, some plants have yet to resume operations and power shortages continue to pose problems. Four ethylene centers representing about 40% of domestic ethylene production were shut down in the wake of the earthquake. In addition to the crackers, plants producing propylene, polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), caustic soda and chlorine were also badly damaged, hitting production of many downstream intermediates and finished products. Maruzen is the largest  methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) producer in Japan and one of the largest in Asia. It is Japan’s only merchant supplier of di-isobutylene. But their production facilities are only scheduled to restart in June 2012.