Reliance idles Patalganga PX, no restart date set

11 November 2008 01:50  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--India’s Reliance Industries would keep its 245,000 tonne/year paraxylene (PX) unit at Patalganga in Maharashtra state idle for an indefinite period after it was shut down in end-October due to poor economics, a company source said late on Monday.

 

“The plant was shut around the end of last month, and we’ll review whether to restart it every month, [taking into consideration] the market conditions,” said the source.

 

Margins for PX producers such as Reliance had been squeezed by falling prices in the past two months, with current spot PX standing at $580-600/tonne CFR (cost and freight) Taiwan, much lower than the year’s peak of $1,705/tonne in July.

 

Although feedstock naphtha and isomer xylene costs had also fallen during the same period, the decline had been less severe compared to PX declines. Based on current isomer xylene costs of around $500/tonne FOB (free on board) Korea, PX producers are in theory making a loss of around $120/tonne, market sources said.

 

Reliance is India’s top aromatics producer. Its main base at Jamnagar in Gujarat state produces 1.7m tonne/year of PX, while the company also owns a smaller PX unit at Gujarat’s Baroda formerly operated by the now-defunct Indian Petrochemicals Limited.

 

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By: Salmon Aidan Lee
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