According to media reports, the Japanese Ministry of Economic and Industrial province (METI) recently said that in May, ethylene production in Japan fell by 2.5% to 535 thousand and 900 tons in April. Compared with the same period last year, ethylene production in Japan increased by 5.8% in May. The monthly decline is due to Asahi MITSUBISHI chemical ethylene company closed in May 10th in the naphtha cracker Mizushima annual maintenance. The cracker is scheduled to restart in July 3rd. The cracking unit is designed to produce 495 thousand tons of ethylene and 320 thousand tons of propylene annually.