South Korea's Hyundai Chemical expands condensate splitter capacity by 30%

06-Sep-19

South Korea’s Hyundai Chemical has expanded the capacity of its condensate splitter by about 30% to 170,000 bpd and mixed xylene to 1.4 mln tpa from 1.2 mln tpa last month, as reported by Reuters. Run rates of the units are dependent on market conditions, the spokesman said, without giving any specifications on the current throughput.
Hyundai Chemical is a joint venture between Hyundai Oilbank and Lotte Chemical. There could be additional naphtha supplies in the market now due to the splitter expansion, said industry sources, who are not linked to the South Korean company. This could further weigh on the market as there are ample supplies already and demand has been lean due to cracker maintenance and recent outages in South Korea, the sources added.