Ethylene shortage on cracker maintenance to shut Formosa's HDPE unit in H2-Aug

19-Aug-16

Taiwan's Formosa Petrochemical Corp.'s 320,000 m tpa high density polyethylene unit will shut for a few days at the end of August due to ethylene shortage triggered by a maintenance at its No. 2 steam cracker. The steam cracker goes through maintenance from July 29 to September 22, as per Platts.
Other polyethylene units, including a 235,000 m tpa low density polyethylene/ethylene vinyl acetate swing plant and a 260,000 m tpa linear low density polyethylene plant, will not be affected and running, the source said.
Formosa has three naphtha-fed steam crackers and each goes through maintenance once every three years.