Sinopec Tianjin Petrochemical to restart its ethylene cracker

(С1Energy) -- Sinopec Tianjin Petrochemical is expected to restart its units from 28 September with all its facilities back into operation in early October, according to the source.

Tianjin Petrochemical has a 13m tonne/year refinery in north China’s Tianjin city. It is equipped with a 1m tonne/year ethylene cracker which was shut for a 45-days maintenance in mid-August, as MRC informed earlier.

The company set its crude throughput target for the fourth quarter of 2012 at 3.3m tonnes, with daily throughput up by 114% from the third quarter, a company source said.

China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group) is a super-large petroleum and petrochemical enterprise group established in July 1998 on the basis of the former China Petrochemical Corporation. Sinopec Group's key business activities include the exploration and production of oil and natural gas, petrochemicals and other chemical products, oil refining.
MRC

(guidechem) -- Taiwan's Loyal Group shut down its largest EPS plant in Jiangyin, China on Monday with the capacity of 450,000 tpa for two-three days due to the fast rising price of styrene monomer in the east of China. However, its other plants in China are running at full capacity. Loyal has a total production capacity of over 1.5 million mt/year of EPS in China. Loyal is not buying SM at the moment, but still has an inventory of EPS to sell, a source close to the company said.

Another large EPS producer, China's Xingda Group, lowered its overall operating rates from full to 70% last week, also due to the price increases in SM, a source close to the company said. The source added that some of its plants were shut down, but did not provide further details. Xingdas plants can make over 1.2 million mt/year of EPS.

Loyal Group - is the largest manufacturer of expanded polystyrene in Asia and one of the world leaders. The first plant was started in 1976 and today the group has 12 plants located in different regions of China, five of which produce polystyrene.

Xingda Group was established in January 1992 by a group of large private plastic chemical enterprises specializing in the production of expandable polystyrene (EPS). After 15 years of sustained development, the group has become a national high-tech enterprise.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) – In August, Russian traders increased import volumes of HDPE to 37,800 tonnes, up 17% from July. Over the past eight months HDPE import to Russia rose almost by a quarter, report MRC analysts.

Last month, the total HDPE import by Russian traders expectedly grew by 17% from July and made 37,800 tonnes. The main growth of import volumes accounted for film and pipe HDPE.

Russian PE pipes producers significantly increased the purchasing volumes in the foreign markets on the back of a series of outages at local HDPE plants for maintenance. Also, quite a low price level of HDPE in Europe and Asia in July added to the growth of purchases in the foreign markets. In August, pipe PE import rose to the record levels and made about 14,200 tonnes. Shipments of the Middle-Eastern Sabic’s PE100 grew more than twofold. Korea Petrochemical and SCG Chemicals’ HDPE import also rose considerably.

Film HDPE import made about 8,300 tonnes in August, up 33% from July. In recent months shipments of South Korean PE have increased dramatically. Export shipments of blow moulding HDPE slashed almost by half last month to 2,400 tonnes. The main reason is the restriction of export quotas by Shurtansk GHK and European makers.

In general, in January-August, the total import of HDPE to the Russian market made about 248,000 tonnes, up 24% year-on-year. The largest increase in imports in over the first eight months accounts for the film and blow moulding HDPE. Export of PE to this sectors grew by 124% and 121%, respectively, year-on-year.

MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russian makers have increased EPS production since the beginning of the year and reached the production level of 51,400 tonnes of the material, report MRC analysts.
In August, 2012, EPS output in Russia reached its historical maximum exceeding 9,000 tonnes of the material.

In August, SIBUR-Khimprom officially announced a launch of the second EPS production line at Perm with the production capacity of 50,000 tpa. As a result, the total capacity of Perm facility rose to 100,000 tonnes of EPS per year. According to market participants, preparations for the launch of the second line were conducted in phases, starting from Q2 2012. This allowed to increase the capacity of the plant gradually from 4,200 tonnes of EPS monthly in early 2012 to almost 8,400 tonnes in September 2012.

As a result, the year-to-date EPS output at Perm increased to 6,900 tonnes of the material, which is equivalent to 80% of the potential capacity utilization.
Also, the increased production was influenced by Plastik (Uzlovaya), which reached its planned indices of 750 tonnes in September. In July, 2012, the production was reduced to 280 tonnes.

In September, Angarsk Polymers plant shut its EPS production for maintenance. It is expected that the outage will last one or two months.

MRC

(uop) -- China’s Jiutai Energy (Zhungeer) Co. Ltd. has licensed Honeywell’s UOP methanol-to-olefins (MTO) technology to convert methanol from coal into key plastics building blocks, announced Honeywell company.

Honeywell’s UOP/Hydro MTO process converts methanol from gasified coal or natural gas to produce high yields of ethylene and propylene, building block materials used in the production of films, packaging, plastics and other petrochemicals. The breakthrough technology allows producers in countries such as China to tap abundant coal resources, rather than more expensive petroleum, to produce petrochemicals.

Jiutai will produce 600,000 tpa of ethylene and propylene at its facility in Ordos City, Inner Mongolia Province, China. In addition to technology licensing, Honeywell’s UOP will provide basic engineering, catalysts, adsorbents, specialty equipment, technical services and training for the project, which is expected to start up in 2014.
MRC