Industry and government officials said March 16 that the Korea Offshore & Shipbuilding Association recently asked the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy for support in securing ethylene supplies. A shipbuilding industry official said some companies could run out “as soon as within two weeks.” The official said switching cutting gas to liquefied petroleum gas, or LPG, is an option, “but LPG is also an imported product, so stabilizing ethylene supply is the priority.”
Ethylene is made from naphtha and is used in shipyards to process or cut steel plates.
About half of the naphtha supplied in South Korea is imported, with the rest produced domestically through crude oil refining. About 70% of South Korea’s crude oil imports come from the Middle East, and 54% of imported naphtha passes through the Strait of Hormuz. The ethylene supply strain is being attributed to a halt in Middle East naphtha feedstock imports following the war between the United States and Israel and Iran.
Yeochun NCC, the country’s largest ethylene producer, notified customers on March 4 that it would delay and adjust deliveries and declared force majeure on supply.
A ministry official said chemical companies have inventories on hand and that the government coordinated with the Korea Chemical Industry Association to send urgent volumes first. “We have taken steps so there will be no short-term disruption to production, and we will spare no support so there are no problems in the long term,” the official said.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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