SEOUL
\nThe government is considering imposing restrictions on naphtha exports as South Korea is facing supply shortages of the material, widely used across petrochemical and other industries, due to persisting geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, Seoul officials said Tuesday.
\n\u201cRelated ministries are preparing for the implementation of naphtha export restrictions,\u201d Yang Ghi-wuk, deputy minister for trade, industry and resource security, said in a daily briefing on resources supplies amid the Mideast crisis.
\nThe preparations come as the country is seeing increasing disruptions in naphtha supplies following the U.S. and Israeli airstrikes against Iran late last month, with Yeochun NCC and other companies announcing \u201cforce majeure\u201d for some of their products due to naphtha shortages. Force majeure refers to the occurrence of an unforeseeable and uncontrollable event that prevents a company from fulfilling a contract.
\nSouth Korea imports around half of its naphtha through the Strait of Hormuz, a major Middle Eastern trade route, which has effectively been closed due to the war. \u201cIn case (the supply shortage) situation prolongs, we are also preparing for an emergency supply adjustment order,\u201d Yang said.
\nOn Monday, LG Chem Ltd. also suspended operations of its ethylene production facility in the southwestern city of Yeosu due to naphtha supply disruptions. Ethylene is produced by cracking naphtha. Last week, the government temporarily designated naphtha as an economic security item to better stabilize the supply and support affected companies. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SEOUL The government is considering imposing restrictions on naphtha exports as South Korea is facing supply shortages of the material, widely used across petrochemical and other industries, due to persisting geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, Seoul officials said Tuesday. \u201cRelated ministries are preparing for the implementation of naphtha export restrictions,\u201d Yang Ghi-wuk, deputy minister […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-538067","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n