MOSCOW (MRC) -- SK Global Chemical, a subsidiary of SK Innovation, plans to shut down its production processes for ethylene and ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) within its naphtha cracking center in Ulsan, South Korea, according to Apic-online.
The 200,000-t/y naphtha cracker, which started commercial operation in 1972, and the EPDM unit, which began commercial operation in 1992, will be mothballed from December 2020 to shift the company's focus to high-value added chemicals.
Separately, SK Global Chemical's planned purchase of Arkema's functional polyolefins business is on schedule to be completed in the first half of this year.
Last October, Arkema announced the proposed divestment of the business to SK for an enterprise value of 335-million.
Part of the PMMA (polymethyl methacrylate) business unit, functional polyolefins comprises ethylene, copolymers and terpolymers.
As MRC wrote before, South Koreaпї's SK Global Chemical had restarted its naphtha cracker in late January 2018, after a brief but unplanned one-day shutdown. The 660,000 tonnes-per-year (tpy) naphtha cracker was expected to be operating normally the following day after the restart. Located in Ulsan, South Korea, the No. 2 cracker has a production capacity of 690,000 mt/year. SK Global Chemical also operates a smaller 200,000 tpy cracker.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,093,260 tonnes in 2019, up by 6% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. PE shipments rose from both domestic producers and foreign suppliers. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 1,260,400 tonnes in January-December 2019, up by 4% year on year. Supply of almost all grades of propylene polymers increased, except for statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers).
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