S Korea’s SKC Corp restars PO, polyether polyols plants

05 August 2011 10:49  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS)--South Korea's SKC Corp has restarted its propylene oxide (PO) and polyether polyols facilities in Ulsan this week after conducting annual turnarounds at the plants, sources close to the company on Friday.

The company has a 100,000 tonnes/year PO facility in Ulsan that employs a hydrogen peroxide-to-propylene oxide (HPPO) technology, another PO unit at the site that uses the propylene oxide styrene monomer (POSM) co-production method that has a nameplate capacity of 175,000 tonnes/year.

The two plants were shut on 15 July. SKC shut the plants in mid-to-late July for annual turnarounds according to a staggered plan spanning several days to two weeks for each unit.

The company also restarted its 100,000 tonne/year propylene glycol (PG) unit at the site and its downstream polyether polyol unit with a 160,000 tonne/year capacity.

But healthy demand from Korean key polyether polyols manufacturers will likely keep domestic PO supply tight despite the restart of SKC’s plants, market sources said.

Export availability of PO is also likely to remain limited over the coming weeks, they said.

Additional reporting by Vikki Shen, Caroline Zhang in Shanghai

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By: Chan Jingyi
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