MOSCOW (MRC) -- Thailand’s IRPC, a PTT Plc subsidiary, is planning to take its polypropylene (PP) lines off-stream in June for routine maintenance, reported CommoPlast.
At the time of this report, there is no additional information on how long the plant would remain shut.
IRPC is the third-largest PP producer in Southeast Asia, having an annual capacity of 775,000 tons/year. The shutdown is expected to affect the supply of homopolymer of propylene (homopolymer PP), according to market sources.
There are also reports that Thailand’s PTT Global Chemical (PTTGC) has issued a sales tender for propylene (C3) cargoes for the second half of May loading. PTT usually supplies propylene (C3) feedstock to IRPC and HMC.
As MRC informed earlier, in late October, 2019, IRPC unexpectedly shut down its upstream propylene unit due to an unspecified technical issue. As a result, the company had to lower the operation rate at the downstream PP plant.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, PP shipments to the Russian market was 347,440 tonnes in January-April 2020 (calculated by the formula - production, minus export, plus import). Supply increased exclusively due to PP random copolymer.
PTT Global Chemical is a leading player in the petrochemical industry and owns several petrochemical facilities with a combined capacity of 8.45 million tonnes a year.
MRC