Sinopec’s Zhenhai eyes cracker restart after 10 June

26 May 2010 10:29  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--Sinopec subsidiary Zhenhai Refining & Chemical Co (ZRCC) is expected to restart its 1m tonne/year naphtha cracker in Ningbo, eastern China, after 10 June due to prevailing technical problems, said a company source on Wednesday.

The cracker was earlier expected to resume operations around 20 May, but some problems had occurred during the restarting process.

ZRCC had shut the cracker on 28 April, days after it was started up.

The company’s new derivative units, which had also stopped production, include a 450,000 tonne/year polyethylene (PE) plant, a 300,000 tonne/year polypropylene (PP) line and a 650,000 tonne/year monoethylene glycol (MEG) facility.

The prevailing cracker outage had no impact on ethylene and propylene spot values, which continued to weaken this week amid bearish sentiment following the recent slump in upstream naphtha and crude values, market sources said.

Ethylene spot prices were traded at $1,080–1,100/tonne (€875–891/tonne) CFR (cost & freight) northeast (NE) Asia mid-week, down $20/tonne from levels on 25 May.

Propylene prices also fell $20–30/tonne to $1,050–1,100/tonne CFR NE Asia during the same period, according to data from ICIS pricing.

($1 =  €0.81)

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By: Peh Soo Hwee
+65 6780 4359

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