Mitsui Chemicals plans to shut its plant at Chiba in Japan in early March for scheduled maintenance.The shutdown could be long as some mechanical work would be carried out so the restart date had not been fixed yet. The plant – a joint venture with Idemitsu Kosan can produce 230,000 tonnes/year of phenol and 80,000 tonnes/year of acetone. Mitsui Chemicals’ other plant at Chiba, which has a nameplate capacity of 190,000 tonnes/year of phenol and 114,000 tonnes/year of acetone, would be taken off line in mid-October for a month-long turnaround.And its plant at Osaka, which can produce 200,000 tonnes/year of phenol and 120,000 tonnes/year of acetone, would be shut in late June and would remain off line until late July. (ICIS)