According to the National Statistical Committee of the Republic of Belarus, the local LDPE producer - Polymir - shut down its production capacities for maintenance in May. Therefore, May polyethylene (PE) output was 3,400 tonnes, compared to 5,400 tonnes a month earlier. Thus, Polymir's total LDPE production was almost 25,400 tonnes in January-May 2018, compared to 25,800 tonnes a year earlier.
As reported earlier, Polymir shut down its LDPE production for a scheduled overhaul from 5 May to 20 May.
The Belarusian producer also plans to resume some of its ethylene production capacities in August after the forced outage because of fire, which took place in June 2016. When the ethylene unit achieves 100% capacity utilisation, LDPE production capacities will also reach the nominal level of its capacity utilisation.
Polymir (part of Naftan) is Belarus' largest petrochemical company, producing a wide range of chemical products, such as low density polyethylene (LDPE), acrylic fibers, products of organic synthesis, hydrocarbon fractions, etc. Polymir was founded in 1968. The producer uses technologies of the largest foreign companies from Great Britain, Japan, Germany, Italy (Courtaulds, Asahi Chemical Co. Ltd, Kanematsu Gosho, SNIA BPD, etc.), as well as the developments of scientific research institutes and design institutes of the CIS countries. The plant's annual production capacity is 130,000 tonnes.
MRC