Corrected: China’s Jinling Petrochemical shuts aromatics unit

23 November 2011 03:50  [Source: ICIS news]

Correction: In the ICIS story headlined “China’s Jinling Petrochemical shuts aromatics unit for maintenance” dated 23 November 2011, please read in the first and third paragraphs … for 40 days … instead of … for 20 days …. A corrected story follows.

SINGAPORE (ICIS)--China’s Jinling Petrochemical shut its aromatics unit at Nanjing in Jiangsu province on Wednesday for 40 days of scheduled maintenance, a company source said.

The unit can produce 150,000 tonnes/year of benzene, 240,000 tonnes/year of toluene and 160,000 tonnes/year of xylenes, the source added.

“The aromatics unit shutdown is in line with the turnaround of its upstream reformer in November for 40 days,” the source said.

Its downstream 600,000 tonne/year paraxylene (PX) unit will operate normally, according to a source from Sinopec’s east China sales branch.

“The domestic supply of toluene and xylene in east China will not be affected as both toluene and xylene are all used to produce PX for captive use,” the sales branch source added.

To meet additional demand for PX, Sinopec’s east China sales branch may purchase one or two shipments [3,000 tonnes per shipment] of isomer grade xylene, a trader said, but this was not confirmed by the sales branch source.

The shutdown is expected to have little impact on the benzene market because Jiangsu Leasty Chemical shut down its styrene monomer (SM) unit on 20 November for 35 days, according to a market player.

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By: Ariel Chen

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