China's Xianglu's 1.5m t/yr PTA unit shut for 15-day maintenance

23 August 2010 07:44  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS)--China’s Xianglu Petrochemical has shut down its 1.5m tonne/year purified terephthalic acid (PTA) unit in Xiamen, Fujian province for 15 days of maintenance, a company source said on Monday.

Xianglu had originally scheduled the maintenance shutdown for mid-August but had pushed it back to 23 August as the company had to "ensure that the preparations for the shutdown were in place," the source said.

“As we promised, we will keep our regular contract commitments to our customers during the shutdown,” the source added.

In the past month, operating rates at the PTA unit had been ramped up to around 120% from its normal 100-110% to offset the estimated production loss of around 65,000 tonnes during the shutdown period, the source said.

The company had also purchased some spot cargoes recently to increase its PTA stocks, the source added.

Meanwhile domestic PTA has shown an uptrend with prices at yuan (CNY) 7,330-7,370/tonne ($1,080-1,085/tonne), a rise of CNY220-230/tonne for the week ended 20 August from the last week of July, according to ICIS data.

An expected rise in demand in September due to the beginning of the peak production season in the textile industry and tight supply had led to the recent rise in PTA values, market sources said.

($1 = CNY6.79)

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By: Becky Zhang
+65 6780 4359

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