Thailand’s BST shuts MTBE unit on feedstock shortage

11 November 2009 06:34  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS News)--Thailand’s Bangkok Synthetics (BST) shut down its 55,000 tonne/year methyl-tertiary butyl-ether (MTBE) plant at Mab Ta Phut, in Rayong province, on Wednesday due to a shortage of feedstock, a company source said.

The plant would remain shut for five days, the source added.

“There has been a disruption in supply of crude C4 from Rayong Olefins Co (ROC), our feedstock provider, forcing us to shut down our MTBE plant,” the source said.

ROC shut its 800,000 tonne/year unit on 5 November for 1-2 weeks of repairs due to compressor issues.

The BST outage was expected to aggravate the shortage of supply in the Asian MTBE market, the source added.

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By: Prema Viswanathan
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