China’s Xiang Lu shuts PTA unit, no restart date set

08 May 2009 04:04  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--China’s Xiang Lu Petrochemical shut down its 1.65m tonne/year purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plant on 5 May with no fixed restart date, company sources said on Friday.

Mechanical issues and shortage of feedstock paraxylene may have caused the unplanned shutdown early this week, said a source close to the company.

“No restart date has been decided yet. We will review the situation again later this week,” said one of the company sources.

The PTA plant located at Xiamen in southern Fujian province was last taken off line in April for about a week.

Like most of its counterparts, Xiang Lu has been facing a shortage of feedstock PX over the past few months as PX producers have been curtailing output.

Xiang Lu is one of the largest PTA producers in China. Part of its output is for captive use of its sister companies - Xiang Lu Chemical Fibers and Dragon Special Resins, while the rest is sold to neighbouring downstream plants in Fujian and Jiangsu provinces.

For more on PTA visit ICIS chemical intelligence
Please visit the complete ICIS plants and projects database
To discuss issues facing the chemical industry go to ICIS connect

By: Salmon Aidan Lee
+65 6780 4359

For the latest chemical news, data and analysis that directly impacts your business sign up for a free trial to ICIS news - the breaking online news service for the global chemical industry.

Get the facts and analysis behind the headlines from our market leading weekly magazine: sign up to a free trial to ICIS Chemical Business.

Printer Friendly