Unplanned outage reported at HDPE plant of Thai Polyethylene

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Thai Polyethylene Co a subsidiary of Siam Cement Group has undertaken an emergency shutdown at its No.2 high density polyethylene (HDPE) plant at Map Ta Phut, said Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Thailand informed that the company has halted operations at the plant last week. The unplanned shutdown is expected to remain in place until end-September 2017.

Located in Map Ta Phut, Thailand, the No. 2 HDPE plant has a production capacity of 180,000 mt/year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- PETRONAS has restarted a No.1 low density polyethylene (LDPE) plant following an unplanned shutdown, as per Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Malaysia informed that the company has resumed operations at its plant last weekend. The plant was shut due to feedstock supply issue caused by an unplanned outage at the upstream cracker.

Located at Kerteh in Terrenganu, Malaysia, the No. 1 LDPE plant has a production capacity of 255,000 mt/year.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Shin-kong Synthetic Fibers Corp. is scheduled to begin operations at several new engineering plastics production lines in Taiwan in the first quarter of 2018, the Taipei Times reported, as per Apic-online.

The new engineering plastics lines "would help boost the company's annual production capacity from 50,000 tons now to 110,000 tons next year," said the report citing Shinkong Synthetic Fibers President Samson Luo.

In addition, the company is considering increasing engineering plastics capacity in the next three years at its facility in Thailand. No other details were given.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Royal Vopak and its joint venture partners, Dialog and the state government of Johor Darul Ta'zim, plan to expand their independent liquid storage terminal in Pengerang, Johor, Malaysia, said Apic-online.

The terminal, Pengerang Independent Terminals Sdn Bhd (PITSB), will be expanded by 430,000 cu m to a total capacity of 1.7-million cu m. Subject to final formalities, the expansion is expected to be commissioned progressively from the first quarter of 2019.

PITSB provides storage, blending and distribution services for crude oil and clean petroleum products. The expansion relates to the storage of clean petroleum products.

A total of 24 new tanks will be built, ranging from 10,000 cu m to 25,000 cu m. In addition, an extra berth will be taken into operation, bringing the total number of operating berths to six.

The terminal is connected via pipelines to the Pengerang Terminals (Two) Sdn Bhd (PT2SB), which will be serving Petronas' Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (RAPID) project currently being built within the Pengerang Integrated complex.

PITSB is owned 45.9% by Dialog, 44.1% by Vopak and 10% by the state government of Johor Darul Ta'Zim. Vopak also owns a 25% stake in PT2SB.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) — Russia held its spot as China's top crude oil supplier for a fifth month in a row in July, with shipments up 54% over a year earlier, data showed on Wednesday, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Russian shipments last month came in at 4.97 MMt, or about 1.17 MMbpd, the General Administration of Customs said in a more a detailed breakdown of commodity trade data released on Aug. 8. For the first seven months of the year, Russia's volumes to China grew nearly 16% year-on-year to 34.22 MMt, or 1.18 MMbpd.

China bought a total of 34.74 MMt of crude oil in July, or about 8.18 MMbpd, down from June but still up about 12% from a year earlier. Imports in the first seven months grew 13.6% year-on-year to 247 MMt, or 8.51 MMbpd.

Saudi Arabia was China's second biggest supplier in July, with volumes at 3.99 MMt, or about 940,000 bpd, down 0.8% from a year earlier. Supplies from the Kingdom rose only 0.4% in January–July from the same period a year earlier to 30.59 MMt, or 1.05 MMbpd.

Shipments from Angola, China's third-largest supplier in July, fell 17.1% from a year earlier to 3.91 MMt, or 921,520 bpd. Year-to-date, Angola maintained its second-ranking for the third month in a row, with January-July supplies up 15%.

Chinese refineries have taken more Brent-related, sweet West African crudes in recent months, scaling back on sour Middle East grades because of the narrowing price differentials that make West African supplies more attractive.

Russian crude exports to China grew this year after independent refiners expanded their diet to include the Urals grade exported from the Mediterranean. China also snapped up almost all of the ESPO blend exports from the Pacific port of Kozmino.

Chinese imports of US crude, which started last year, were about 174,000 bpd in July and amounted to 3.8 MMt for the first seven months of the year, or 1.5% of the country's total imports. Chinese buyers have over the period also ramped up imports of Brazilian oil, with first-seven month shipments up 41% on year.

Imports from Iran inched up 0.45% on year in July at 568,720 bpd while supplies from Iraq shot up 16% at 857,020 bpd, customs data showed.
MRC