MOSCOW (MRC) -- A fire hit Thai petrochemical producer HMC Polymers' polypropylene (PP) production complex at Mab Ta Phut, in Rayong province on 30 November, according to Polyermupdate.
The fire hit its silo farm, where PP pellets are stored and bagged. The fire was extinguished in around an hour and there were no injuries.
After the incident, the company shut one of its three PP units, with a nameplate capacity of 360,000 t/year. The shutdown is expected to last two weeks to a month, according to market sources.
The producer also operates a propane dehydrogenation (PDH) plant with 310,000 t/yr of propylene capacity and two other PP plants with the capacities of 200,000 t/year and 250,000 t/year. Production at all of these units was unaffected.
As MRC reported earlier, HMC Polymers, part of Thaniland's petrochemical major - PTT Global Chemical, is planning to launch its fourth PP plant in Map Ta Phut site, Rayong Province of Thailand. The new PP unit would have an annual capacity of 220,000 tons. HMC Polymers announced plans for this plant's construction on 26 June 2019. The company has already completed the Licence Agreement with LyondellBasell to use the Spherizone technology for the new plant. Together with the three existing units, the new plant would boost HMC’s total PP output to1.03 million tons per year, making it the largest PP producer in Southeast Asia region.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 978,870 tonnes in January-October 2020 (calculated using the formula: production minus exports plus imports minus producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply of exclusively of PP random copolymer increased.
HMC Polymers is one of the leading companies in the manufacturing and marketing of polypropylene (PP) for Asia and worldwide. HMC Polymers is the first PP manufacturer in Thailand with its first PP production facility to have been established in Rayong Province, Thailand in 1987. The company's PP production facilities output is over 750,000 metric tons per year and comprise two Spheripol lines and a latest technology Spherizone line from LyondellBasell. HMC Polymers produces a wide range of Moplen polypropylene grades including homopolymer, heterophasic and random copolymer resins, as well as specialty polypropylene resins such as Adstif, Clyrell and Purell. In addition, a strategic investment in upstream integration was made in parallel with the construction of a Propane Dehydrogenation plant (PDH) at a site adjacent to our Map Ta Phut plant.
MRC