MOSCOW (MRC) -- China's Hengyi Petrochemical, a joint petrochemical venture between China and Brunei, has achieved on-specification aromatics output at its new plant in Brunei, which has nameplate production capacity of 1.5mn t/yr of paraxylene (PX) and 500,000 t/yr of benzene, reported Argus.
Hengyi Brunei's aromatics units are currently running at 60-70%, after its reformer started trial runs in mid-October.
Most PX output will be consumed by Chinese producer Yisheng Petrochemical's three PTA plants in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, which have combined nameplate capacity of 5.15mn t/yr. Hengyi owns a 50% stake in Yisheng Petrochemical, while the other 50% is owned by fellow private-sector firm Rongsheng Petrochemical.
The first PX shipment from the Brunei plant will probably be loaded in late November and head to China.
Hengyi Brunei is in negotiations with market participants over sales of benzene to northeast and southeast Asia, traders said. The company has already started some spot sales of benzene, including at least one cargo sold for first-half December delivery to Singapore at parity to fob South Korea prices.
Hengyi Petrochemical is one of the largest polyester producers in China. The company, based in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, owns more than 6mn t/yr of capacity in Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Fujian.
As MRC wrote before, on 9 October 2019, Hengyi Industries Sdn Bhd inked commercial agreements with Brunei Shell Petroleum Company (BSP) and Brunei Shell Marketing Company (BSM) for the supply of crude oil to Hengyi and selling of fuel products in Brunei market.
Paraxylene is a raw material for the synthesis of terephthalic acid (TFA) - an intermediate for the production of polyethylene terephthalate (PET).
According to ICIS-MRC Price Report, Plant of New Polymers Senege, one of the Russian producers of PET chips, shut production of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) for scheduled repairs on 1 October. According to a source in the company, the shutdown will take about a month. The exact date of the completion of the turnaround was not reported.
Hengyi Industries is a joint venture of Zhejiang Hengyi Group (70%) and Damai Holdings, a subsidiary of the Brunei government's Strategic Development Capital Fund (30%).
MRC