Arak’s cracker complex in 45-day turnaround

01 August 2007 09:18  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--Arak Petrochemical’s cracker complex in Arak, Iran, is undergoing a 45-day maintenance and expansion turnaround and will restart on 5 September, a company source said on Wednesday.

The shutdown would tighten the already limited supply of polyolefins in the Middle East market, traders said. 

 

Arak's 50,000 tonne/year polypropylene (PP) plant would be debottlenecked to boost its capacity by 50% to 75,000 tonnes/year, the company source said.

 

The additional propylene for the expansion will come from the cracker, which will be debottlenecked to boost capacity to 320,000 tonnes/year from 240,000 tonnes/year. Arak's high density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density PE (LLDPE) plants would also be expanded to 85,000 tonnes/year and 75,000 tonnes/year respectively, from 60,000 tonnes/year each.

 

After the expansion, the HDPE plant would produce only pipe-grade material and not film and injection grades, which it was currently producing, the source said, adding the LLDPE plant would continue to produce injection and rotomoulding grades.

 

The additional PP and PE output would be exported to China, South Asia, Turkey and the Middle East, the source said.

 

Arak along with National Petrochemical Co (NIPC) and Melli Bank Investment hold a 45% share in Lavan Chemical in Assaluyeh, Iran. The remaining 55% is owned by India’s Sab Industries.

By: Prema Viswanathan
+65 6780 4359

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