Japan Energy’s fire-hit aroms plant remains shut

30 April 2008 06:25  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--Japan Energy’s aromatics plant in Kashima remains shut after a fire in late April delayed the producer’s plans to restart the facility, a company official said on Wednesday.

"There is no prospect for restarting (the plant) at the moment," the official said, adding that there were still no clear indications when operations would be resumed.

The fire had broken out at its 420,000 tonne/year paraxylene (PX) unit on 20 April while the producer was in the process of restarting it after a one-week unplanned shutdown due to technical problems.

There were no injuries but the facilities from the condensate splitter to the PX units were all shut for safety checks.

The aromatics plant, which is also known as Kashima Aromatics, is a joint venture between the producer and Mitsubishi Corp. It also produces 190,000 tonnes/year of benzene from its 60,000 bbl/day condensate splitter.

The official said there was currently no need to buy PX from the spot market as it had enough inventories to cover for May contracts.  

"We asked our customers to reduce or cancel volumes in June and we are still negotiating," he added.

For more on aromatics visit ICIS chemical intelligence

By: Peh Soo Hwee
+65 6780 4359

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