UPDATE 1-Japan Mitsubishi Chem restarts naphtha cracker

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SINGAPORE Jan 13 (Reuters) - Mitsubishi Chemical Corp, the largest petrochemical firm in Japan, has restarted a 450,000 tonnes per year (tpy) naphtha cracker in Mizushima on Jan. 12, following almost two weeks of repair works, a statement said.

The cracker, which was initially scheduled to restart on Wednesday, was shut on Dec. 30 for repairs following a gas leakage from a corroded pipe. [ID:nT144377].

The statement did not reveal the operational rate, which was around 70-80 percent of capacity before the outage.

"The cracker is now running at around 70-80 percent of its capacity," said a source familiar with the operations of the company, a unit of Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings (4188.T), "There are no plans to ramp it up to 100 percent."

The below capacity operations was because petrochemical demand in Japan has yet to recover amid the ongoing economic crisis.

The company operates two other crackers in Kashima, which have a total nameplate capacity of 851,000 tpy.

"Operational rates at the Kashima cracking facility are almost the same as the one in Mizushima," said the same source.

Cracker operators in Japan have been slashing run rates to below 100 percent since August last year to combat the weak petrochemical margins. (Reporting by Seng Li Peng; Editing by Ramthan Hussain)