Taiwan’s CPC cuts Kaohsiung benzene, PX output

20 November 2008 11:48 [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--Taiwan’s CPC Corp has reduced its aromatics production at Kaohsiung due to an unspecified reformer problem and poor economics, sources close to the state-owned company said on Thursday.

The sources said benzene production would be reduced by around 50%, while paraxylene (PX) output would be down by around 55% between now and the end of the year.

CPC officials declined comment.

“We were told that PX supply would be cut, as their reformer has some problem, which was not told to us in detail,” said one of the sources.

A second source believed that another reason behind the production cut was poor margins for benzene and PX.

“Today, benzene crashed again, and based on costs of naphtha and crude oil, especially those bought earlier, it would make heavy losses,” said the source. Benzene prices fell to a six-year low of $290/tonne FOB Korea today.

PX values at $600-610/tonne CFR Taiwan would also give producers no margin, as isomer xylene numbers were more than $500/tonne FOB Korea and naphtha futures were above $250/tonne CFR Japan.

CPC produces a total of 362,000 tonnes/year of benzene and 660,000 tonnes/year of PX at its Zuoyin and Linyuan bases at Kaohsiung in the south of Taiwan.

For more on benzene and PX visit ICIS chemical intelligence

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By: Salmon Aidan Lee
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