Nan Ya 350.000 tpa plant still shut due to feedstock shortage

(plastemart) -- Nan Ya's No. 3 unit, which was idled on June 30 for a three-week maintenance, has been forced to stay shut. Taiwan's Nan Ya Plastics has been unable to restart its 350,000 tpa No. 3 monoethylene glycol (MEG) unit at Mailiao this week due to a continued shortage of ethylene feedstock

The Taiwanese MEG maker sources its feedstock ethylene from affiliate Formosa Petrochemicals, that has a dearth of ethylene after a fire at it's No. 1 steam cracker, with capacity to produce 700,000 tpa of ethylene.

MRC

(plastemart) -- Industries Qatar plans to run its 1.3 mln tpa ethane cracker in Ras Laffan at a reduced capacity until next year because of ⌠technical issues. The Ras Laffan Olefins Co's cracker, which began operating in Q2-2010, will reach full capacity by the middle of 2011. The cracker, run at 64% capacity in May, was scheduled to reach full output by September, and has been further delayed by technical issues expected to be gradually rectified from the end of 2010.

The cracker is designed to supply ethylene to Qatar Chemical Co's new high-density polyethylene plant and to Qatofin Co's linear low-density polyethylene plant.

The Qatofin plant, which started operation last year, will also reach full output by the middle of 2011.

MRC

(Bloomberg) -- The alarms sounded at Chevron Phillips Chemical Co.'s Cedar Bayou chemical plant in Baytown, Texas, after a ⌠small leak was detected in a process unit. The leak has been brought under control and has had no impact to the community.

The Cedar Bayou plant is the largest owned by the Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips JV, and has eight process units including two olefins units.

MRC

TEHRAN (Tehran Times) -- The Arvand Petrochemical Complex will soon be officially inaugurated as the largest polyvinyl chloride (PVC) producer in the Middle East. The complex is located in Mahshahr, southwest of Iran, and will come on stream at the cost of one billion euro.

"The complex will produce over 240,000 tons of polyvinyl chloride (PVC). It is also projected to annually produce 660,000 tons of caustic soda, 340,000 tons of vinyl chloride, and 890,000 tons of ethylene dichloride.

MRC

(Minprom) -- After a two-year overhaul, polyethylene and ethylene workshops are to be launched by the end of August at Kalush-based Karpatneftehim; in the first half of September two new lines - one chlorine and caustic soda, and a PVC unit will be started. Russia's Lukoil-Neftehim invested over $500 mln. into that project.

Comissioning is in process now in Kalush near Ivano-Frankovsk.Officially, polyethylene unit is to start operations on August 25; ethylene unit is to be launched on August 27, chlorine and soda line starts on September 14 and PVC line is to be launched on September 15.

MRC