MOSCOW (MRC) -- South Korean refiner SK Energy plans to shut its 60,000 bpd crude unit in Ulsan between March and April for a month of routine maintenance, an official of SK Innovation Co Ltd told Reuters on Tuesday.
SK Innovation Co Ltd is the owner of South Korea's top refiner SK Energy.
Separately, Hyundai Oilbank, the refinery unit of Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings, also plans to shut its 160,000 bpd unit in Seosan between April and May, a source with knowledge of the matter said.
Hyundai Oilbank did not comment.
SK Energy has five crude distillation units (CDUs) at its refinery in the southeastern city of Ulsan, with a total refining capacity of 840,000 bpd, while Hyundai Oilbank has an overall refining capacity of 690,000 bpd.
As MRC informed earlier, in March 2021, SK Innovation announced its intention to build a plant in Wojewodztwo Slaskie, Poland that will manufacture Lithium-Ion Battery Separators (LiBS) and Ceramic Coated Separators (CCS).
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,047,100 tonnes in the first ten months of 2021, up by 17% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,226,530 tonnes in January-October 2021, up by 26% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymers (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding stat-copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) decreased significantly.
MRC