Polish prime minister officially opens PKN Orlen PTA facility

02 June 2011 16:26  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS)--Polish prime minister Donald Tusk has officially opened PKN Orlen’s 600,000 tonne/year purified terephthalic acid (PTA) plant, the oil, chemical and petrochemical group said on Friday.

“This is the most modern PTA facility in Europe and an impressive investment,” said Tusk, thanking Japan’s Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation and American and Italian suppliers that contributed to the realisation of the project.

PKN Orlen said it had spent about €1bn ($1.44bn) on constructing the PTA plant in Wloclawek, northern Poland, and, to provide the installation with feedstock, a 400,000 tonne/year paraxylene plant in nearby Plock.

European polyethylene terephthalate (PET) producers, many of which are suffering from a lack of primary feedstock PTA, are expecting that the facility will bring some relief from tight supply. The PTA facility was initially scheduled for launch at the beginning of the year.

PKN Orlen has forecast that the plant would achieve 60-70% of its annual capacity this year before utilising full capacity next year.

In February, PKN Orlen signed a deal to deliver PTA to the value of about €500m from the Wloclawek facility to fellow Polish company, PET manufacturer Indorama Polymers (which operated as SK Eurochem until it was acquired in March by Thailand’s Indorama Ventures).

Indorama Polymers’ 140,000 tonne/year PET manufacturing facility is also located in Wloclawek.

($1 = €0.70)

For more on PTA, visit ICIS chemical intelligence
For more on PKN Orlen, visit ICIS company intelligence

By: Will Conroy
+44 20 8652 3214

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