China's Jiangsu Sopo eyes new butac line

23 April 2009 07:03  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--China’s Jiangsu Sopo plans to build a 50,000 tonne/year butyl acetate line at its integrated acetyls complex in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu province,  country, a company official said on Thursday.

"We had been mulling a butyl acetate plant since two years but the market at that time was not conducive," he said in Mandarin.

The firm operates two acetic acid lines, which have a combined nameplate capacity of 650,000 tonnes/year, and a 270,000 tonne/year ethyl acetate plant in Zhenjiang.

The company exports ethyl acetate regularly to Taiwan, south Korea, Japan and southeast Asia and sporadically exports acetic acid cargoes to southeast Asia.

"Although we have not yet made a firm decision to proceed, we are currently in a good position as we can capitalise on our economies of scale, our location and production cost advantage over the smaller-scale, less efficient plants," he said.

Construction of the butyl acetate line would take six months if the project was approved.

Major butyl acetate producers in Asia include Celanese, Dow Optimal Chemicals, Jiangmen Handsome Chemical Development, Jiangyin Baichuan Chemical Industrial Co Ltd and Korea Alcohol Industrial.

For more on butyl acetate visit ICIS chemical intelligence
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By: Helen Lee
+65 6780 4359

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