Sharq cuts Asia LLDPE allocations for July by 30%

04 July 2007 07:53  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Petrochemical (Sharq) has reduced its July linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) allocations for Asia by 30% due to production problems, a source close to Sharq said on Wednesday.

“Sharq’s LLDPE plant has been facing intermittent production problems during the past three months, limiting its supply,” the source said.

“The plant was shut down for a couple of days in June, but is now up and running,” he added. He declined to divulge the normal allocations for Asia as well as the current operating rate of the plant.

Limited availability from Sharq has intensified the tightness in PE markets in the Asian and Middle East markets in recent months, causing prices to rise by $10-20/tonne in China.

Prices also rose $20-30/tonne in southeast Asia, $20-60/tonne in south Asia and $10/tonne in the Middle East in the last 10 days.

Sharq, a 50:50 joint venture between Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) and SPDC, a Japanese consortium headed by Mitsubishi Corp and Mitsubishi Chemical,  operates a 1.3m tonne/year cracker and a 750,000 tonne/year LLDPE plant at Al-Jubail.

By: Prema Viswanathan
+65 6780 4359

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