China's Karamay Petrochemical delays methanol restart

17 April 2009 03:51  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--China's Karamay Petrochemical has delayed the restart of the 200,000 tonne/year natural gas-based methanol unit in Xinjiang to June from end of April, sources close to the company said on Friday.

No reason was given for the delay but market players said it could be due to lacklustre demand from downstream converters.

Chinese methanol prices were assessed at $225-245/tonne (€171-186/tonne) CFR (cost and freight) China last Friday, up around $5-10/tonne from the previous week largely due to speculation in the futures market and to a lesser extent, tight domestic supply, according to global chemical intelligence service ICIS pricing.

Other methanol producers in China include Shanghai Coking and China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC).

($1 =€0.76)

Sam Liang from CBI contributed to this article

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By: Heng Hui
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