A series of scheduled maintenance shutdowns have been reported for European crackers recently for the September-November period, on top of which some crackers also faced unplanned turnarounds. These shutdowns helped play a role in creating a bullish sentiment for the outcome of the recently settled September ethylene contract with an increase of €50/ton. According to market players, Versalis was planning to start a scheduled maintenance shutdown in early September at its 745,000 tons/year cracker in Priolo, Italy. Players highlighted that the cracker was already running at reduced rates following the force majeure declaration on ethylene in mid-July. The shutdown is expected to last for two months. Sabic is also on the list of European producers planning a maintenance shutdown in September. The company is scheduled to shut its 800,000 tons/year cracker in Geleen, the Netherlands for 5-6 weeks. In mid-September, Ineos is slated to halt its operations at its 660,000 tons/year cracker in Cologne, Germany. Ineos is planning to keep its cracker shut for two months. In October, Repsol is planning a 40 day maintenance shutdown at its 700,000 tons/year cracker in Tarragona, Spain. In Tarragona, Dow also faced an unplanned maintenance turnaround at its 675,000 tons/year cracker in the later days of August. This shutdown was expected to end after the first half of September, according to market players. Looking at Asia, three major crackers have recently returned from maintenance shutdowns. Daqing Petrochemical restarted its two crackers with a total capacity of 1.2 million tons/year in the latter part of August. JX Nippon Oil & Energy also resumed operations at its 404,000 tons/year cracker in Kawasaki, Japan in late August after a 10 day shutdown. China’s Yanshan Petrochemical also restarted its 800,000 tons/year cracker in Beijing on September 3. However, the return of these crackers are nearly counterbalanced with the shutdowns of other regional crackers, which are to be offline soon or have already gone out of the market for the September-October period. Japan’s Mitsubishi Chemical started a maintenance shutdown at its 476,000 tons/year No 2 cracker in Kashima on August 27 for 50 days. Mitsui Chemicals is also planning to shut its 500,000 tons/year cracker between September 18 and October 1 while Formosa is to bring its 1.03 million tons/year No 2 cracker in Mailiao offline for 45 days on September 15. Malaysia’s Optimal Olefins also shut its 600,000 tons/year cracker in Kertih on September 1 for 50 days, as was planned, reported market players.
Posted on: Wed, 04 Sep 2013 13:11:26 +0000
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