MOSCOW (MRC) -- Taiwan's CPC Corporation unexpectedly shut is No. 4 cracker due to technical glitches on 2 July, reported CommoPlast with reference to market sources.
Based in Linyuan, Taiwan, the cracker is able to produce 380,000 tons/year of ethylene and 193,000 tons/year of propylene. The shutdown period is slated for around 7 days.
Market players reported that this plant is supplying upstream to Taiwan's Oriental Union Chemical Corporation (OUCC)'s 250,000 tons/year monoyethylene glycol (MEG) plant as well as Taiwan‘s China Man-made Fiber Corporation (CMFC)'s 400,000 tons/year MEG plant, which causing both MEG plants to reduce production rate to around 70-80%.
The company also operates another cracker at the same site - No. 3 cracker, which has an ethylene capacity of 720,000 mt/year and propylene capacity of 370,000 mt/year.
As MRC informed previously, CPC Corporation took one of its naphtha crackers off-stream on 8 November 2019 for major maintenance work. The No. 4 cracker was expected to remain offline for about 65 days. The shutdown resulted in a production loss of 67,671 tons of ethylene and 34,370 tons of propylene.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 595,170 tonnes in the first five month of 2020, up by 10% year on year. Deliveries of all ethylene polymers, except for linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE), rose partially because of an increase in capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market was 457,930 tonnes in January-May 2020 (calculated by the formula production minus export plus import). Deliveris of exclusively PP random copolymer increased.
CPC Corporation, Taiwan, is engaged in the exploration, production, refining, procurement, transportation, storage, and marketing of oil and gas. The company provides fuel oil, including automotive unleaded gasoline and diesel fuel, low-sulfur fuel oil, marine distillate fuels, marine residual fuels, and aviation fuel; petrochemicals, such as ethylene, propylene, butadiene, benzene, para-xylene, and ortho-xylene; liquefied petroleum gas products comprising liquefied petroleum gas, propane, butane, and a propane/butane mixture; lubricants, motor oil, industrial oil, grease, and marilube oil; SNC products, including petroleum ether, naphtha, toluene, xylene, crude octene, methyl alcohol, normal paraffin, viscosity-graded asphalt cement, and sulfur; and natural gas.
MRC