Lotte expects to restart Daesan cracker by end of year

MOSCOW (MRC) -- South Korea’s Lotte Chemical might resume operations at its cracker in Daesan that was hit by an explosion in early March by late 2020, according to Chemweek.

The company shut its naphtha cracker on March 4,2020, after an explosion at the plant in the southwestern city of Seosan, which injured 31 people. The explosion, which was triggered by a fire at a compressor in Lotte Chemical’s naphtha cracker at around 3 a.m. local time (1800 GMT), was soon contained and under control, the company said then in a statement.

The petrochemical maker said it has suspended its naphtha cracker’s operations in Daesan county in Seosan due to the fire and will seek to minimize supply disruptions.

The company is looking into the exact cause of the accident, it said then, adding there was no leak of toxic chemicals.

Initially, Lotte Chemical planned to restart this cracker in a couple of weeks after the fire.

As MRC wrote before, Lotte Chemical has shut down its Deasan cracker for maintenance turnaround on October 14, 2019. The cracker resumed production on November 10, 2019. Located at Daesan in South Korea, currently the cracker has an ethylene capacity of 1.1 million mt/year and propylene capacity of 540,000 mt/year.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 557,060 tonnes in the first three month of 2020, up by 7% year on year. High density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments rose because of the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. Demand for LDPE subsided. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market was 267,630 tonnes in January-March 2020, down 20% year on year. Homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers accounted for the main decrease in imports.

Lotte Chemical runs two naphtha crackers in South Korea. One cracker is located in Daesan county in Seosan which can produce 1.1 million tonnes per year of ethylene with the other 1.2 million tonnes per year cracker in the southwestern city of Yeosu.
MRC

Zhejiang Petrochemical delays start up of new ACN plant until H2 May 2020

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Zhejiang Petrochemical Co Ltd has postponed the start of its new acrylonitrile (ACN) plant to the second half of May, 2020, reported S&P Global.

Based in Zhejiang, China, this plant is able to produce 260,000 tons/year of ACN. Initially, the company planned to begin operations at this production last week.

As MRC informed earlier, Zhejiang Petrochemical Co Ltd started up its ethylene cracker in late December 2019 and its polyolefin plants in late December 2019-January 2020.

Market sources reported then that one of its polypropylene (PP) plant with capacity of 450,000 tons/year started up by 30 December 2019, followed by another line with same capacity by 15 January 2020.

Meanwhile its 450,000 tons/year of linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) and 300,000 tons/year of high density polyethylene (HDPE) were launched around similar time with PP plants.

We also remind that China's greenfield Zhejiang Petrochemical will use a range of process technology from Honeywell UOP for the second phase of its integrated refining and petrochemical complex in Zhoushan, Zhejiang province, according to a document, quoting a senior Honeywell official. "This second phase of the complex by itself will process 20 million tons per year of crude oil and produce another six million tons per year of aromatics when completed," Bryan Glover, vice president and general manager, Process Technology and Equipment, at Honeywell UOP, stated in the document as of January 2019.

ACN is the main feedstock for the production of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS).

According to MRC's DataScope report, overall ABS imports to the Russian market increased in the first two months of 2020 by 8% year on year to 4,800 tonnes. This figure was at 4,500 tonnes in January-February 2019. February imports of material into the Russian Federation rose by 48% year on year to 2,500 tonnes from 2,700 tonnes a year earlier. Imports were 2,300 tonnes in January 2020.
MRC

Tianjin Bohai plans to run its PDH plant in China at full capacity utilisation this week

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Tianjin Bohai Chemical is expected to reach 100% capacity utilisation at its propane dehydrogenation (PDH) plant within this week, reported S&P Global.

The company unexpectedly shut down this plant on 22 April, 2020, and initially planned to resume its operations in late April, but this PDH unit was restarted on 7 May, 2020.

Located in Tianjin, China, the PDH plant has a propylene capacity of 600,000 mt/year.

As MRC informed before, Tianjin Bohai Chemical last restarted its PDH plant in late March, 2020. Previously, in early February, the company decided to postpone the restart of its PDH plant by another 19 days to February 29 due to sluggish demand for propylene. This came after the facility, located in northeastern China, had delayed the restart of its 600,000 mt/year propylene plant to February 10, from February 6, extending the Lunar New Year holidays in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. Tianjin Bohai uses 720,000 mt/year of propane when at full capacity.

Propylene is the main feedstock for the production of polypropylene (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, PP shipments to the Russian market was 267,630 tonnes in January-March 2020, down 20% year on year. Homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers accounted for the main decrease in imports.

Tianjin Bohai is a state owned enterprise, with over 100 subsidiaries and 35,000 employees. It has joint venture relationships with a number of foreign partners, including: LG Chem, Solvay, Akzo Nobel, Clariant, Veolia, Air Liquide and Vopak.
MRC

Hit by oil crash, Indonesia set to delay B40 biodiesel

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Indonesia is likely to delay plans to raise bio-content in palm oil-based biodiesel to 40%, and keep going with an already ambitious 30% content, a senior official said, amid speculation that low crude prices could force a government re-think, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The biodiesel programme is a key part of the government’s strategy to soak up excess supplies of palm oil and curb expensive fuel imports, one of the main contributors to the country’s current account deficit problem. Some traders had questioned whether it was still viable for the government to continue its programme following the historic drop in crude oil prices earlier this year.

But Musdhalifah Machmud, a deputy minister at the Coordinating Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Friday the policies were under discussions and would soon be disclosed by President Joko Widodo. “It will not be a single policy, but there will be several policies that are interrelated to one another,” Machmud said.

Late last year, Indonesia raised the bio-content in its biofuel mandate to 30% (B30), the highest palm-based content in biodiesel ever used. Machmud said the policies are aimed at keeping B30 going until 2021, while the plan to increase the bio-content to 40% (B40) will likely be delayed to 2022 due to disruption to world fuel demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

"We were preparing for B40, but the current situation is not conducive for investment in processing B40,” she said. “B40 will be delayed to 2022." In January, the energy ministry had planned to start road tests for B40 in April and had looked at rolling out the upgrade as early as next year.

“The schedule has been disrupted by work-from-home and movement restriction policies. We are waiting for conditions to return to normal to resume testing,” Dadan Kusdiana, head of research and development at the energy ministry, told Reuters.

Indonesia reported its first COVID-19 cases early in March and since then many areas, including the capital Jakarta, has imposed movement restrictions. In February, the government has said it was planning to raise palm oil export levies to support the biodiesel programme as the price gap between biodiesel and standard gasoil - as diesel is called in Asia - had widened.

Indonesia collects levies to help finance its palm oil programmes, including biodiesel subsidies and replanting programmes for smallholders. The Estate Crop Fund, an agency in charge of collecting and managing the levies, disburses funds to subsidise biodiesel makers.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing PE and PP.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 383,760 tonnes in the first two month of 2020, up by 14% year on year. High density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments increased due to the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 192,760 tonnes in January-February 2020, down by 6% year on year. Homopolymer PP accounted for the main decrease in imports.
MRC

JXTG Nippon Oil restarts Kawasaki cracker after mantenance

MOSCOW (MRC) -- JXTG Nippon Oil and Energy has brought on-stream its cracker following a turnaround, according to Apic-online.

A Polymerupdate source in Japan informed that, the company resumed operations at the cracker on April 28, 2020. The cracker was shut for maintenance on February 27, 2020.

Located at Kawasaki in Japan, the cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 460,000 mt/year and propylene production capacity of 235,000 mt/year.

As MRC reported earlier, JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy shut its cracker in Kawasaki on June 8, 2018 owing to technical issues. The cracker remained off-line for around 10 days. Located at Kawasaki in Japan, the cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 448,000 mt/year and propylene production capacity of 273,000 mt/year.

Besides, it was taken off-line on December 10, 2018 for maintenance work. The cracker is likely to remain off-line for around 8-10 days.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 557,060 tonnes in the first three month of 2020, up by 7% year on year. High density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments rose because of the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. Demand for LDPE subsided. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market was 267,630 tonnes in January-March 2020, down 20% year on year. Homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers accounted for the main decrease in imports.
MRC