A fire affected the coolant system forcing a shutdown last week at South Korea's Yeochon Naphtha Cracking Centre (YNCC). YNCC has restarted the 400,000 tpa No. 3 cracker. However, the 510,000 tpa No. 1 unit could remain closed for a week. Taiwan's Chinese Petroleum Corp. has also been forced to shut down its 500,000 tpa No. 5 cracker due to a compressor problem and is expected to restart only after mid week. This has forced the company to resell prompt naphtha cargoes.
Will Asian naphtha markets experience the same kind of downward pressure when Japanese petrochemical producer Showa Denko unexpectedly shut down its 653,000-tpy naphtha cracker last month?
10-Jan-06 
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