Thailand's TOC aiming to start up new cracker next week

23 November 2004 04:26  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (CNI)--Thai Olefins Co (TOC) is aiming to start up its new 300 000 tonne/year ethane-based cracker next week after solving some technical problems that prevented the unit from commissioning since 1 November, a company official told CNI on Tuesday.

The unit is an expansion of the company's existing 385 000 tonne/year naphtha cracker at Mab Ta Phut. Mechanical completion of the new unit was in October.

"We tried to start it up on 1 November, but the start-up attempt failed. We tried a few more times, but it didn't work because of technical problems," said the official, who declined to elaborate on the nature of the problems.

"We're confident that the new cracker will start up next week because we have the problems fixed," he said, adding that commercial production from that cracker was scheduled for January.

The official said that most of the ethylene produced would go into the domestic market, with a limited volume available for sale in the Asian spot market. TOC has been selling one or two ethylene cargoes a month in the past few months, taking advantage of the high prices.

By: Edgar Ang
+65 6780 4359

For the latest chemical news, data and analysis that directly impacts your business sign up for a free trial to ICIS news - the breaking online news service for the global chemical industry.

Get the facts and analysis behind the headlines from our market leading weekly magazine: sign up to a free trial to ICIS Chemical Business.

Printer Friendly