Japan's Idemitsu Kosan said it restarted the naphtha cracker at its Chiba plant, east of Tokyo, on Thursday after scheduled maintenance. The 374,000 tons per year cracker, which had been shut since March 27, began making products that reached specified standards on Thursday, a spokeswoman said.

The company has no plans to shut its 623,000 tpy naphtha cracker at Tokuyama plant this year.