MOSCOW (MRC) -- China’s Ningbo Mitsubishi Chemical Company (NMC) has delayed the restart of its purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plant, industry sources told TPS.
"(The plant's) pipes had frozen, and it could mean they might only restart by January 28, or this weekend" the source told TPS.
A cold wave descended upon China last week, dropping temperatures below zero degrees Celsius.
The company's plant in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, has a nameplate capacity of 600,000 mt/year, but usually operates at a rate of 700,000 mt/year. The plant was originally intended to restart on January 25 after a 10-day turnaround, which began on January 14.
Based on TPS estimates, assuming the plant runs at a rate of 700,000 mt/year, a 11-day halt in production would result in a stoppage loss of 21,095 mt of PTA or 21 standard size parcels.
Ningbo Mitsubishi's plant is a joint venture between China’s CITIC Group (10%) and Ningbo PTA Investment Company (NPI, 90%)). The stakes in NPI is split between Mitsubishi Chemical Company (61%), Itochu (35%) and Mitsubishi Corp (4%).
As MRC informed previously, Mitsubishi Chemical shut down its No. 2 naphtha cracker on January 22, 2016, owing to a technical glitch. The exact duration of the outage could not be ascertained. Located in Kashima, Japan, the plant has an ethylene capacity of 526,000 mt/year and propylene capacity of 260,000 mt/year.
Mitsubishi Chemical with headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, is a diversified chemical company involved in petrochemicals, polymers, agrochemicals, speciality chemicals and pharmaceuticals. The company's main focus is on three business pillars: petrochemicals, performance and functional products, and health care.
MRC