Lotte Chemical UK to restart Wilton PTA plant in April

11 March 2010 13:56  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--Lotte Chemical UK is on track to restart purified terephthalic acid (PTA) production at its plant at Wilton, UK, in April, a company source confirmed on Thursday.

“We are looking forward to starting the plant in April and engaging with the European customer base,” said Nick King, the company’s PTA commercial director.

The 500,000 tonne/year PTA plant at Wilton has been shut down since the first quarter of 2009.

Some sources doubted the start-up would have much of an impact on the European market before May at the earliest.

“[The restart] will make it more competitive,” said King.

There was talk of other European sellers increasing their export activity, although they were not available for comment.

Speculating on why this could be, one source said: “[Producers] see Lotte Chemical UK coming up and they want to be ahead of the game.”

Asian PTA spot prices were pegged at $932-962/tonne (€680-702/tonne) CFR (cost and freight) CMP (China Main Port) on Thursday.

European contract prices were last recorded between €730-740/tonne FD (free delivered) NWE (northwest Europe) for January, according to data from global chemical market intelligence service ICIS pricing.

Lotte Chemical UK, a subsidiary of KP Chemical Corp, bought Artenius UK’s Wilton assets in January.

Artenius UK, owned by La Seda de Barcelona, went into administration in July 2009.

($1 = €0.73)

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By: Caroline Murray
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