Saudi Arabia's IMC to restart methanol unit

31 October 2005 05:43  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--International Methanol Company’s (IMC) 1.05m tonne/year methanol plant in Saudi Arabia is expected to restart this week after a 14-day maintenance turnaround, a company official said on Monday.

A source from one of the private company’s Japanese shareholders said 40,000 tonnes of methanol would be lost in the turnaround, which started on 18 October. Operating rates at the Al Jubail, Saudi Arabia unit were 2,900 tonne/day prior to the shutdown.

The source added that the IMC shutdown, along with the loss of approximately 30,000 tonnes of methanol from an unplanned shutdown at Qatar Fuel Additives Company’s (Qafac) 835,000 tonne/year methanol unit at Mesaieed, Qatar on 21 October, would lead to a total output loss of around 70,000 tonnes of methanol.

He said the IMC and Qafac turnarounds would delay November and December shipments to Northeast Asia, including South Korea and Taiwan.

At the close of business Friday, Asian spot methanol values rose $5-10/tonne. South Korea led the market with a $5/tonne gain to touch $265/tonne CFR Korea.

IMC is a 65:35 joint venture between Saudi International Petrochemical Co (Sipchem) and Japan Arabian Methanol Co, itself a joint venture between Japan’s Mitsui & Co, Mitsubishi Corp, Daicel Industries and Iino Kaiun Kaisha. IMC’s methanol unit started in December 2004.

Shareholder sources said last week that IMC’s plans to build a second 1m tonne/year methanol plant in Al Jubail had been either cancelled or postponed because of feedstock constraints and oversupply.

 

 

 

 

By: Helen Lee
+65 6780 4359

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