China's monoethylene glycol imports in August rose 11.76% from a month earlier to 659,089 mt, customs data released Saturday showed. The imports were down 1.69% from a year ago.

Chinese buyers sought spot MEG cargoes for August in a bid to cover a supply shortfall from Kuwait due to an unplanned outage.

Kuwait's Equate shut its 550,000 mt/year MEG plant on July 31 after a fire. Platts reported that the MEG plant would be restarted in the middle of November.

China's MEG imports from Kuwait fell 36.67% on month to 45,193 mt.

Market sources said China's MEG imports from Saudi Arabia would likely fall in the coming months also due to a plant shutdown. Saudi Arabia's Eastern Petrochemical Company, or Sharq, shut its 700,000 mt/year No. 4 MEG plant in Jubail from early September for 10-12 weeks of maintenance. Sharq is owned 50% by Sabic and 50% by a Japanese consortium led by trading house Mitsubishi Corp. China imported 303,953 mt of MEG from Saudi Arabia in August, up 5.69% from a month earlier.

Meanwhile, China's MEG imports from the US plunged 73.76% from a month earlier to 3,204 mt as Hurricane Issac disrupted MEG plant operations there late August. With a tight supply situation still persisting in the US, China's MEG imports from the US will likely be at a low level in September as well, according to market sources.

CHINA'S MEG IMPORTS COUNTRY August 2012 July 2012 Change (%) Iran 29,077 26,501 +9.72 Japan 23,085 3,018 +664.91 Kuwait 45,193 71,388 -36.67 Saudi Arabia 303,953 287,573 +5.69 Singapore 36,493 31,375 +16.31 Korea Rep 40,905 35,235 +16.09 Taiwan 78,204 107,213 -27.06 Canada 72,121 7,994 +802.19 United States 3,206 12,216 -73.76 Total* 659,089 589,735 +11.76 * Includes supplies with relatively small or sporadic volumes Units: mt .