MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF-YPC, a 50-50 joint venture of BASF and Sinopec, is likely to undertake a planned shutdown its naphtha cracker in April 2020, according to Apic-online.
A Polymerupdate source in China informed that the company has planned to start turnaround at the cracker on April 5, 2020. The plant is expected to remain under maintenance for around two months.
Located in Jiangsu, China, the cracker has an ethylene capacity of 750,000 mt/year and propylene capacity of 400,000 mt/year.
As MRC wrote previously, in 2018, BASF-YPC conducted three-week maintenance works at its naphtha cracker in China until May 9, 2018, when the cracker restarted. Located in Nanjing, China, the cracker has an ethylene capacity of 740,000 mt/year.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropyelene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,724,670 tonnes in the first ten months of 2019, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market in January-October 2019 totalled 1,066,520 tonnes, up by 7% year on year. Supply of block copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymer) and homopolymer of propylene (homopolymer PP) increased, demand for statistical copolymers (PP random copolymer) decreased.
BASF is the world's leading chemical company. Its portfolio ranges from chemicals, plastics, performance products and crop protection products to oil and gas.
Sinopec Corp. is one of the largest scale integrated energy and chemical company with upstream, midstream and downstream operations. Its principal business includes: exploring, developing, producing and trading crude oil and natural gas; producing, storing, transporting and distributing and marketing petroleum products, petrochemical products, synthetic fiber, fertilizer and other chemical products. Its refining capacity and ethylene capacity rank No.2 and No.4 globally. Sinopec listed in Hong Kong, New York, London and Shanghai in August 2001. Sinopec Group, the parent company of Sinopec Corp., is ranked the 5th in Fortune Global 500 in 2012.
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