MOSCOW (MRC) -- ExxonMobil is planning to shut part of its Singapore Chemical Plant in April due to unforeseen external market factors that significantly impact the company’s businesses, ExxonMobil said in an official statement to its customers.
The company did not specify which units are affected by the shutdown, however, reassured buyers of a stable supply of performance polyethylene (metallocene grade). As such, it is assumed that the 650,000 tonnes per year metallocene PE (mPE) plant would continue to operate throughout April.
Meanwhile, the old plant including the 480,000 tonnes per year PP line and the 600,000 tons/year LLDPE unit would likely be affected, and so the 650,000 tons/year new LLDPE line.
As per MRC, ExxonMobil announced that construction of the new linear alpha olefins (LAO) manufacturing unit at its Baytown, Texas, integrated petrochemical complex is progressing and targeting commercial start up in mid-2023. When fully operational, the new facility will have the capacity to produce approximately 350,000 metric tons of LAO annually.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC''s ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,487,450 tonnes in 2021, up by 13% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 1,494.280 tonnes, up by 21% year on year. Deliveries of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whreas shipments of PP random copolymers decreased significantly.
ExxonMobil is the largest non-government owned company in the energy industry and produces about 3% of the world's oil and about 2% of the world's energy.
mrchub.com