MOSCOW (MRC) -- China's Ningbo Mitsubishi Chemical Company (NMC) shut its purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plant on February 15 due to technical issues, multiple industry sources told TPS.
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.
According to a PTA producer source, the plant experienced some equipment failure, and will be down for five-to-seven days.
A market source told TPS that the company is looking to restart production on Feb 20, indicating a downtime of five days starting from Feb 15.
Based on TPS estimates, assuming the plant runs at a rate of 700,000 mt/year, a five-day production halt would result in a stoppage loss of 9,589 mt of PTA or nine 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%).
We remind that, as MRC reported previously, in October 2014, Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co. decided to discontinue its PTA business. Mitsubishi currently operates a 260,000-t/y PTA plant at Mizushima, Japan, through its Mizushima Aroma joint venture with Toyobo Co. A spokesperson at Mitsubishi, when asked for the reason behind its decision to quit the PTA business, said "we cannot anticipate improvement of the profit without global oversupply." The company is "now examining" when to exit the business, he added.
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