Polychem Indonesia reduces No 1 MEG output

02 July 2007 08:06  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--Polychem Indonesia has been running its No 1, 90,000 tonne/year monoethylene glycol (MEG) unit at around 75% of nameplate capacity due to a gasket leak earlier in the month, a company source said on Monday.

 

“The gasket leak could not be fully rectified, so that affected the operating rates,” said the source.

 

The source added that the producer’s No 2 125,000 tonne/year line at the same Merak site was running at normal rates and had not been affected by the mechanical problem at the first unit.

 

The source also confirmed that the one-week outage at Chandra Asri’s cracker had not had any impact on Polychem’s MEG production.

 

“We’re not sure if eventually the [cracker outage] will affect, but so far nothing yet,” said the source. The cracker is expected to restart on Monday.

 

Polychem is Indonesia’s only MEG producer. Its two lines at Merak offtakes feedstock ethylene from Chandra Asri, as well as other sources.

 

The reduced output by the producer had not affected MEG spot prices significantly. Last Friday, closing numbers were pegged at $925-935/tonne CFR (cost and freight) China on soft demand.

 

ICIS Copyright © Reed Business Information 2009

Author: Salmon Aidan Lee
+65 6780 4359

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