Ethylene, propylene supplies to tighten in SE Asia amid a series of turnarounds

01-Aug-19

Supplies of ethylene and propylene are expected to be tight in southeast Asia amid a string of turnarounds in the coming quarter, as per www.argusmedia.com. Indonesian producer Chandra Asri will be starting its scheduled cracker turnaround at Cilegon for 45 days this week. Chandra Asri's cracker has a nameplate capacity of 860,000 tpa of ethylene and 470,000 tpa of propylene. It also has polyethylene and polypropylene units with a capacity of 320,000 tpa /yr and 480,000 tpa respectively.

Malaysian state-owned Petronas' Kerteh olefins cracker is also targeting to have a scheduled maintenance in August for 40-60 days. The cracker is able to produce 600,000 tpa of ethylene and 90,000 tpa of propylene. Philippine producer JG Summit will be having its cracker turnaround at the start of October until the end of November. Its Batangas cracker is able to produce up to 320,000 tpa of ethylene and 250,000 tpa of propylene. But the tighter supplies ethylene and propylene might be eased with the start-up of Petronas' Pengerang cracker in late September. The new Pengerang cracker will be able to produce 1mln tpa of ethylene and 630,000 tpa of propylene.