MOSCOW (MRC) -- Thiland's PTT Global Chemical Pcl planned to boost sales in Southeast Asia to offset weak demand from China, the company's biggest overseas market, said Reuters.
PTT Global, the petrochemical flagship of Thai top energy firm PTT Pcl, planned to increase exports to the region to 10-15 percent over the next two years from 5 percent now, Chief Executive Supattanapong Punmeechaow told a news conference.
Sales to China are expected to fall to 10 percent by 2018 from 19 percent now, he said, adding potential new markets include Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, which have high demand for plastics. About 70 percent of PTTGC's petrochemical products are sold domestically, while the rest are exported, Supattanapong said.
PTTGC, Thailand's largest petrochemicals maker, currently has a production capacity of 8.75 million tonnes a year and runs a refinery with a crude and condensate refining capacity of 280,000 barrels per day.
Despite a 16 percent decline in first quarter earnings, PTTGC's net profit this year would be higher than in 2015 due to a rise in capacity in the second half and planned reduction in operating costs by around 1 billion baht versus 630 million baht last year, Supattanapong said.
PTTGC is expanding its petrochemicals capacity and plans to build a new naphtha cracker in Map Ta Phut in the eastern province of Rayong with an annual capacity of 500,000 tonnes ethylene and 261,000 tonnes of propylene, the company said in a statement. Construction of the new cracker is expected to start in 2018 and begin commercial operations in 2020, it said.
As MRC informed earlier, PTT Global Chemical (PTTGC) is likely to shut an high density polyethylene (HDPE) plant for a maintenance turnaround. A source in Thailand informed that the plant is expected to be taken off-line in early-June 2016. It is slated to remain under outage for around 15 days. Located in Map Ta Phut, Thailand, the plant has a production capacity of 300,000 mt/year.
PTT Global Chemical is a leading player in the petrochemical industry and owns several petrochemical facilities with a combined capacity of 8.45 million tonnes a year.
mrcplast..ru