Xinjiang Tuha restarts methanol plant after maintenance

28 May 2010 12:17  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--Xinjiang Tuha Oilfield’s 240,000 tonne/year methanol unit in China's western province of Xinjiang is running at normal rates after being restarted on 6 May, a company source said on Friday.

The facility was suddenly shut down for maintenance in mid-April after operations previously had been halted from September 2009 to March 2010 due to a lack of natural gas in winter.

The company declined to disclose any specific current operating rates.

Industry players said this temporary closure was not expected to affect the market significantly, as many domestic producers were not operating at full rates for financial reasons.

China has an annual demand for methanol of around 12m tonnes/year.

Chinese methanol was heard at around $230-240/tonne (€186-194/tonne) CFR (cost and freight) China on Friday, down $15-20/tonne from the previous week, according to global chemical market intelligence service ICIS pricing.

Other methanol producers in China include China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC), Kingboard Chemical and Yanzhou Coal Industry Yulin Energy.

($1 = €0.81)

Sam Liang from CBI contributed to this article

For more on methanol visit ICIS chemical intelligence
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Read John Richardson and Malini Hariharan’s Asian Chemical Connections blog
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By: Heng Hui
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