China's Fuhaichuang plans to shut PX, PTA units for maintenance from end-June.
China's Fuhaichuang Petroleum and Petrochemical, formerly known as Dragon Aromatics, plans to shut its 1.6 million mt/year paraxylene and 4.5 million mt/year purified terephthalic acid plants at Gulei for maintenance from end-June, a source close to the company said Tuesday.
Petrotahlil:The company will shut its PX plant from June 20, and plans to restart the unit by the end of July, the source added.
Maintenance of its PTA plants will commence later between July 3 to July 25, as there are sufficient feedstock inventories to support PTA operation while the PX units are taken offline, the source added.
The PX and PTA units were originally slated to go for turnaround in early May, S&P Global Platts reported earlier, but the shutdown was postponed due to attractive PTA profit margins since the second half of April, sources said.
The PTA/PX spreads were calculated to be averaged at $195/mt for CFR China marker and Yuan 1,418/mt for China's domestic PTA material between April 16 to June 17, Platts data showed. These were higher than the typical PTA/PX spreads of $150/mt and Yuan 900/mt respectively.
Asian spot PX was assessed at $805.17/mt CFR Taiwan/China on Monday, down $12.5/mt from last Friday with laycan rollover. While Platts assessed PTA price stable at $711/mt CFR China, and up Yuan 90/mt at 5,630/mt ex-tank for prompt-loading domestic China material over the same period.
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