Taiwan ’s CPC to bring forward restart of No 2 PX to mid-July

25 June 2010 04:56  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--Taiwan state-owned CPC Corp will bring forward the restart of its 250,000 tonne/year No 2 paraxylene (PX) facility in Kaohsiung by two weeks to mid-July, a company source said on Friday.

“We’re targeting to run the facility at high rates upon restart,” the source added.

CPC shutdown the facility in early-May for a 45-day turnaround but decided to keep the plant idle till the end of July due to poor isomer-grade xylene (IX)/PX margins.

The source declined to give reasons for bringing forward the restart date despite IX/PX margins being languid.

The IX/PX spread was hovering around $110/tonne at the time of writing this report while PX makers typically require a spread of around $150-180/tonne to break even and cover operational costs.

The only other PX maker in Taiwan is Formosa Chemical and Fibres Corp (FCFC).

For more on PX visit ICIS chemical intelligence
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By: Bohan Loh
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