Honam Petrochemical cuts run rate by 10% at 1 mln tpa Daesan cracker

28-Mar-12

Honam Petrochemical is operating its 1 mln tpa cracking complex at Daesan at around 90% of its capacity following mechanical trouble linked to a compressor, as per Reuters. It is expected that the South Korean could maintain the run cuts until the cracker goes into debottlenecking work beginning around the middle of April to raised capacity to 1.05 mln tpa. Honam operates a 750,000 tpa cracking complex in Yeosu that has been shut in early March for 40 days maintenance and expansion that will boost its annual capacity to 1 million. These shutdowns coincide with Japanese Showa Denko’s emergency shutdown of operations at its 695,000 tpa cracking complex on March 15 after a cooling unit burst. Market players opine that any loss of demand in naphtha caused by these setbacks would prove temporary as Honam would return to with stronger demand due to its expanded capacity.