MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sinopec SABIC Tianjin Petrochemical Co. (SSTPC), a 50-50 joint venture of Sinopec and SABIC, has taken off-stream its styrene monomer (SM) plant, according to Apic-online.
A Polymerupdate source in China informed that, the company has undertaken a planned shutdown at the plant on May 7, 2020. The plant is slated to remain under maintenance for about 7-8 weeks.
Located at Tianjin, China, the SM plant has a production capacity of 35,000 tonnes/year.
As MRC reported earlier, SSTPC also shut its naphtha cracker in Tianjin on 1 May 2020 for routine maintenance work. The cracker is expected to remain off-line until early July 2020. The naphtha cracker is designed to produce 1 million tons/year of ethylene, which supplies several local buyers in the Tianjin area. Besides, the company is also planning to expand its cracker capacity to 1.3 million tons/year in 2021.
SM is the main feedstock for the production of polystyrene (PS).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, March 2020 estimated consumption of PS and styrene plastics dropped by 2% year on year, totalling 42,130 tonnes. The estimated consumption totalled 121,880 tonnes in the first three months of 2020, down by 2% year on year. Overall, Russian plants produced 42,790 tonnes in March 2020. Overall output of high impact polystyrene (HIPS) and general purpose polystyrene (GPPS) totalled 32,100 tonnes in March 2020. 98,390 tonnes of HIPS and GPPS were produced in January-March 2020. The decrease in Russian plants' output was 3%.
China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group) is a super-large petroleum and petrochemical enterprise group established in July 1998 on the basis of the former China Petrochemical Corporation. Sinopec Group"s key business activities include the exploration and production of oil and natural gas, petrochemicals and other chemical products, oil refining.
Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) ranks among the world"s top petrochemical companies. The company is among the world"s market leaders in the production of polyethylene, polypropylene and other advanced thermoplastics, glycols, methanol and fertilizers.
MRC