BP Amoco advances China acetic acid expansion plan
17 February 2000 16:03 [Source: ICIS news]
LONDON (CNI)--BP Amoco said Thursday it is pressing ahead with the evaluation of plans to double the capacity of its acetic acid plant in Chongqing, southwest China.
The plant, which was brought onstream a year ago, has already been uprated from 150 000 tonne/year capacity to 200 000 tonne/year.
But encouraged by a review of domestic demand for acetic acid and its derivatives, BP Amoco is considering a further expansion to 350 000 tonne/year-400 000 tonne/year by 2002-03 using its proprietary Cativa technology, according to Iain Macdonald, BP Amoco's newly appointed vice president for strategy and development for chemicals.
Macdonald, who was formerly chief executive of the company's acetyls business, said plans are also being studied to add some 80 000 tonne/year of esters derivatives to the plant which is owned by the joint venture Yangzi River Acetyls (YRA) in which BP Amoco has a 51% stake.
The acetic acid and derivatives expansion plans would bring the plant's capacity more in line with BP Amoco's facility in South Korea.
Macdonald, who was speaking here at a presentation on BP Amoco's chemicals business following its announcement of 1999 financial results, confirmed that the company's new acetic acid plant in Kertih, Malaysia would not start up until early in the second half of this year. He said the 400 000 tonne/year plant had originally been due on stream at the end of 1999 but was awaiting feedstock from BP Amoco's Malaysian partner Petronas.
The plant is now likely to come onstream at about the same time as the new 500 000 tonne/year plant being built for German industrial chemicals company Celanese in Singapore.
Macdonald conceded that some 900 000 tonne/year of capacity coming onstream at the same time was certain to have an impact on the market. However, he pointed out that Celanese was closing its Celaya, Mexico plant and rationalising production elsewhere, and he remained broadly optimistic about the prospects for BP Amoco's Asian acetic acid facilities.
By: Neil Sinclair
+44 20 8652 3214
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