Thailand’s PTT Chemical starts trial runs at new HDPE plant

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--Thailand’s PTT Chemical has started trial runs at its new 250,000 tonne/year high density polyethylene (HDPE) plant at Mab Ta Phut, sources close to the company said on Monday.

"The trial production was initially expected to begin on 13 November, but it started only this morning when the producer fed ethylene to the new plant," one of the sources said.

In addition, an ongoing debottlenecking procedure at the firm’s existing 250,000 tonne/year HDPE plant, at the same site, was expected to be completed by late December, the sources said.

The capacity of the plant, which is operated by the firm’s fully owned subsidiary Bangkok Polyethylene, would be raised by 50,000 tonnes/year to 300,000 tonnes/year, the sources said.