MOSCOW (MRC) -- Taiwan’s Oriental Petrochemical (OPTC) has shut its No. 1 purified terephthalic acid (PTA) unit for maintenance, industry sources told TPS.
According to the sources, the unit will be shut for a month.
OPTC currently has two PTA units operating in Taoyuan. Its No. 1 PTA unit, which started up in 1992, has a nameplate capacity of 400,000 mt/year. Its No. 2 PTA unit, which came on-stream in 1997, is able to produce 500,000 mt/year.
A No. 3 PTA unit was originally expected to start in Taoyuan Q4 2014, but was held back to 2015 amid poor market conditions. Once the new 1.52 million mt/year No. 3 unit begins production, OPTC will become the biggest PTA producer in Taiwan with a combined production capacity of 2.42 million mt/year.
We remind that, as MRC wrote before, China's Hanbang Petrochemicals commenced trial runs for its second purified terephthalic acid (PTA) unit on January 22, 2016. The startup of Hanbang's new 2.2 million/year PTA line will increase its total nominal PTA production capacity to 2.8 million mt/year.
Oriental Petrochemical is a subsidiary of Far Eastern Group, which has polyester, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and textile businesses.
MRC