Japan's Mitsubishi Chemical said on Friday that planned maintenance on the No.2 naphtha cracker at its Kashima plant, with capacity to produce 453,000 tons of ethylene per year, would begin on Aug. 31.

The company, a unit of Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings, said it restarted the No.2 cracker earlier on Friday as scheduled. A company spokesman declined to specify the last day of maintenance for the No.2 cracker.

The firm delayed the start of scheduled maintenance on the No.2 cracker by around two months from its original plan of June 30 to replenish its petrochemical product inventories, which were depleted after its main Kashima complex was damaged in a magnitude 9.0 earthquake on March 11.