MOSCOW (MRC) -- China’s Sinochem Quanzhou Petrochemical successfully started up its newly constructed naphtha cracker in Quanzhou, Fujian province on 16 May 2020, setting the company on track to bring its downstream units online by mid of the year, reported CommoPlast.
The cracker has an annual capacity of 1 million tons of ethylene.
The downstream units include a 350,000 tons/year polypropylene (PP) plant, 450,000 tons/year high density polyethylene (HDPE) plant, and 200,000 tons/year low density polyethylene (LDPE) units, which are expected to come on stream between June and July 2020.
Also at the same site, the company expanded the refinery units by 60,000 barrels per day, lifting the refining capability to 300,000 barrels per day from the previous 240,000 barrel.
As MRC informed before, in January 2020, Sinochem Energy, a unit of China’s Sinochem Group, agreed to sell a 20% stake to five state-owned firms for 11.56 billion yuan (USD1.65 billion).
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.
Sinochem Group engages in energy, agriculture, chemicals, real estate, and finance service businesses in China and internationally. It is involved in the exploration and production, refining and trading, warehousing and logistics, and distribution and retailing of oil and gas. The company also produces and distributes fertilizers, such as nitrogen, phosphate, potash, and other fertilizers.
MRC