Taiwan's CPC briefly shuts No 5 Kaohsiung cracker, no disruptions

09 May 2012 06:25  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS)--Taiwanese producer CPC Corp briefly shut its 500,000 tonne/year No 5 naphtha cracker in Kaohsiung as a result of some issue on 8 May, a source close to the company said on Wednesday.

The source said it was a minor issue and this had not affected the company’s supply of olefins. The source did not provide more details.

Prior to the brief outage, the No 5 cracker had been running at a reduced rate of around 80%, the source said.

An unplanned shutdown had also occurred at the same cracker in early April following a pipeline leak that had led to an explosion at the site.

The cracker was subsequently restarted but the company’s 95,000 tonne/year butadiene (BD) extraction unit that was also shut for repairs at the same time remains off line and the restart will depend on an approval from the government authorities, the source added.

CPC also runs a 230,000 tonne/year No 3 naphtha cracker and a 385,000 tonne/year No 4 naphtha cracker in Linyuan. Both plants are currently operating at 100% capacity, the source added.

Additional reporting by Bohan Loh

By: Peh Soo Hwee
+65 6780 4359

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