Qapco to turn around LDPE plant end-January

17 January 2007 07:14  [Source: ICIS news]

By Prema Viswanathan

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--Qatar Petrochemical Co (Qapco) planned to shut its low density polyethylene (LDPE) plant at the end of January for maintenance, a company source said late on Tuesday.

The 400,000 tonne/year plant at Mesaieed, Qatar, will be shut for four weeks, he added.

"We have already made provisions to ensure that supply to our regular customers will not be disrupted," the source said. The company has been building up adequate inventories to pre-empt any cuts in allocations.

Prices of LDPE in all regions have been rising this week due to tight supply, exacerbated by the Qapco turnaround.

One Middle East supplier raised its LDPE offers this week to $1,420-1,430/tonne CFR (cost and freight) Middle East/Pakistan, and said it had already concluded some business at these levels. The offers mark a $20-30/tonne increase from the previous week.

The supplier said its offers to India had risen to $1,430-1,450/tonne CFR, up $30-50/tonne from the previous week. A second Middle East supplier was expected to announce its LDPE offers next week.

LDPE supply in the Indian market was further constrained by the shutdown of Indian Petrochemicals Corp Ltd’s (IPCL) naphtha cracker and LDPE lines at Vadodara, Gujarat state, on 8 January.

Additional factors contributing to market bullishness were strong demand from the milk pouch segment and high ethylene feedstock costs, which bucked the softening in crude values. 

Ethylene prices for February were stable at $1,250-1,300/tonne CFR northeast Asia.

By: Prema Viswanathan
+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