Plant shutdowns may underpin China PTA prices - traders

22 January 2010 06:14  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--Recent shutdowns of purified terephthalic acid (PTA) lines in China-based Dahua Yisheng and Ningbo Formosa Chemical Fibre Corp (FCFC) may support PTA prices in the country, traders said on Friday.

Dahua Yisheng’s 1.5m tonne/year plant in Dalian, northern China was shut down on Wednesday night following a mechanical outage, a company source said.

The shutdown was expected to last five days and would cause an estimated production loss of around 20,000 tonnes of PTA, he added.

Ningbo FCFC had shut down its 600,000 tonne/year unit on Thursday for a planned maintenance and expected to restart it in a week, the company source said.

Production loss due to the shutdown was estimated at around 13,000-14,000/tonnes of PTA, the source added.

The shutdowns could underpin market prices, traders said, even as a bearish sentiment at the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange saw a drop in PTA futures.

Spot prices for Taiwanese PTA cargoes remained firm at $965-970/tonne (€685-689/tonne) CFR (cost and freight) China on Thursday, according to global chemical intelligence service, ICIS pricing.

($1 = €0.71)

For more information on PTA, visit ICIS chemical intelligence
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By: Becky Zhang
+65 6780 4359

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