MOSCOW (MRC) -- Korea Petrochemical Industry Co (KPIC) has taken a high density polyethylene (HDPE) plant off-stream for a maintenance turnaround, as per Apic-online.
A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the company has started maintenance at the plant early this week. The plant is expected to remain under maintenance for about 6-7 weeks.
Located in Ulsan, South Korea, the plant has a production capacity of 530,000 mt/year.
As MRC informed before, KPIC aims to expand its ethylene production capacity by the first half of 2017, company CEO Jeong Young Tae said in April 2-16. Jeong said that KPIC’s ethylene capacity expansion for its Ulsan-based Naphtha Cracking Center (NCC) is ongoing and is expected to start commercial operation from Jun 1, 2017.
Currently, KPIC produces about 470,000 mt/year of ethylene from its Ulsan-based NCC. With the ongoing capacity expansion, the company will be adding 330,000 mt/year of ethylene, and its combined ethylene capacity will reach 800,000 mt/year.
KPIC is one of the key producers of ethylene in South Korea. The company’s ethylene capacity accounts for about 6% of total ethylene production in South Korea. When the capacity expansion is completed, however, the company’s market share will be increased to nearly 10%.
MRC