China’s Gaoqiao Petrochemical runs No 2 aromatics unit at 35%

02 February 2012 03:41  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS)--China’s Gaoqiao Petrochemical, a subsidiary of Sinopec, is running its No 2 aromatics unit at 35% capacity after starting it up in January, a company source said on Thursday.

 Gaoqiao Petrochemical is operating the plant at a low rate because it is still conducting test runs at the unit, the source said.

The exact start-up date could not be confirmed, but on-spec products were achieved on 11 January, according to the source.

The plant can produce 120,000 tonnes/year of benzene and 200,000 tonnes/year of isomer-grade xylene (IX), the source said.

All of the benzene output is used in Gaoqiao Petrochemical’s phenol and acetone production, while the IX output is sold to the domestic market, the source added.

Since the start-up, the company has sold 5,500-6,000 tonnes of IX to the domestic market. However, the prices of IX are not expected to be affected as the increase in supply is small, market players said.

By: Ariel Chen

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