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MOSCOW (MRC) -- South Korea's SK
Global Chemical shut its small No. 1 naphtha-fed steam cracker in Ulsan
permanently on Dec. 10 due to aging-related issues, reported S&P Global with reference to a company
source's statement on Dec. 11.
The No. 1 steam cracker is able to
produce 200,000 mt/year of ethylene and 140,000 mt/year of propylene.
The
company will keep normal operations of its No. 2 steam cracker at the same
location.
The No. 2 unit is able to produce 660,000 mt/year of ethylene,
350,000 mt/year of propylene and 110,000 mt/year of butadiene.
As MRC wrote before,
South Korea's SK Global Chemical restarted its naphtha cracker in late
January 2018, after a brief but unplanned one-day shutdown. The 660,000
tonnes-per-year (tpy) naphtha cracker was expected to be operating normally the
following day after the restart.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks
for producing PE and PP.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report,
Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,760,950 tonnes in the first ten
months of 2020, up by 3% year on year. Only high density polyethylene (HDPE) and
linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments increased. At the same time,
PP shipments to the Russian market reached 978,870 tonnes in
January-October 2020 (calculated using the formula: production minus exports
plus imports minus producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply of
exclusively of PP random copolymer increased. |
