Iran's Jam to start up HDPE in Q4, before cracker

08 August 2007 11:49  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--Iran's Jam Petrochemical expects to achieve commercial production at its 300,000 tonne/year Assaluyeh high density polyethylene (HDPE) plant early in the fourth quarter, a source close to the project said on Wednesday.

The planned launch would come before the the start-up of Jam's 1.32m tonne/year cracker at the same site.

"The HDPE plant will probably use ethylene feedstock from the Arya Sasol cracker, as the Jam cracker is only expected to go on stream by the end of the year," the source added.

Arya Sasol, a joint venture of Iran's National Petrochemical Co (NPC) and South Africa's Sasol, has started up its 1m tonne/year cracker and is expecting to stabilise production by the end of August or early September, he said.

Jam, a subsidiary of NPC, will not start up its other derivative plants until the first quarter of 2008, the source said.

Besides the HDPE unit, the cracker complex includes a HDPE/linear low density PE (LLDPE) unit and a polypropylene (PP) unit, each with capacity of 300,000 tonnes/year.

By: Prema Viswanathan
+65 6780 4359

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