Chandra Asri cracker, PE units remain offline

07 March 2006 04:31  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--Chandra Asri, Indonesia’s sole cracker operator, failed to restart its ethylene plant at Merak, West Java, on Monday due to a faulty compressor, a company source said on Tuesday.

As a result, the company’s two polyethylene (PE) plants are likely to remain shut until later this week, added a second source.

The 520,000 tonne/year cracker, a 200,000 tonne/year high-density PE/linear low-density PE (hdPE/lldPE) swing unit, and a 100,000 tonne/year hdPE unit, were shut after a power generator broke down on Friday. The power supply resumed on Sunday.

“We tried to restart the cracker on Monday but found another problem at one of the compressors," the source said. He could not elaborate on the problem at the unit, which can also produce 260,000 tonne/year of propylene.

The shutdown did not affect PE prices in the region as Chandra Asri sells its output mainly to the domestic market.

Carol Zu contributed to this article.

By: Florence Tan
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