Maoming Petchem to start up polymer lines end-Aug

27 June 2006 09:04  [Source: ICIS news]

SHANGHAI (ICIS news) -- Maoming Petrochemical, a subsidiary of Chinese energy major Sinopec, will start up its new polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene (PE) units around end-August, company sources said on Tuesday.

 

The 300,000 tonnes/year PP unit and 350,000 tonnes/year high-density PE (hdPE) unit are mechanically ready as scheduled. Both are located in Maoming, Guangdong province.

 

"We will conduct trial runs for one-to-two months," said one source. The output will be supplied to distributors and converters located mainly in southern China from September, he added.

 

The new capacities will receive ethylene and propylene from Maoming’s new naphtha cracker, which has an ethylene capacity of 640,000 tonnes/year. The cracker is scheduled to start up in late-September, but the company was hoping to bring it forward by around two months.

 

This will be the second cracker to come on stream in southern China this year after CNOOC & Shell Petrochemicals (CSPC) started up their 800,000 tonne/year ethylene plant in February.

 

Other units downstream of Maoming’s new cracker would be able to produce 100,000 tonnes/year of styrene monomer (SM), 100,000 tonnes/year of monoethylene glycol (MEG), 50,000 tonnes/year of styrene butadiene rubber (SBR), 50,000 tonnes/year of butadiene and 50,000 tonnes/year of methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE).

 

The company has an existing 380,000 tonnes/year cracker, and a 175,000 tonnes/year hdPE/linear low-density PE (lldPE) unit, a 100,000 tonnes/year low-density PE (ldPE) unit and a 160,000 tonnes/year PP unit.

By: Rena Gu
+65 6780 4356

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