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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Yeochun Naphtha
Cracking Centre (YNCC) restarted the No. 2 naphtha cracker in Yeosu, South
Korea with a delay on 17 January 2021 following a two-and-a-half-month shutdown
for expansion, reported CommoPlast with
reference to market sources.
The initial start-up was scheduled
on 14 January, 2020.
The expanded cracker is now capable of producing
915,000 tons/year of ethylene, up from the previous 580,000 tons/year and
550,000 tons/year of propylene, up from 270,000 tons/year previously. Sources
reported that the cracker has reached on-spec ethylene output at night on
20 January.
As MRC informed earlier,
the company took No.2 cracker off-stream around the third week of October
2020 for two months of maintenance.
YNCC is a joint venture between South
Korean firms Hanwha and Daelim. The new ethylene capacity would be supplied to
Daelim’s new mPE plant at the adjacent location.
YNCC owns two other
naphtha crackers in Yeosu with a combined capacity of 1.325 million
tons/year.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing
polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's DataScope report,
PE imports to Russia decreased in January-November 2020 by 17% year on year and
reached 569,900 tonnes. High density polyethylene (HDPE) accounted for the
greatest reduction in imports. At the same time, PP imports into Russia
increased by 21% year on year to about 202,000 tonnes in the first eleven months
of 2020. Propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) accounted for the main increase
in imports.
South Korea’s Yeochun NCC (YNCC) pyrolyzes naphtha to produce
basic feedstock materials for the petrochemical industry. YNCC, a joint venture
between South Korean firms Hanwha and Daelim, is a key exporter of ethylene and
propylene in the country. |
