China's propylene imports in Sep surge 76% on high downstream demand

China's propylene imports in September surged nearly 76% to 143,331 mt year on year on tight domestic availability and high downstream demand, data released by China Customs Tuesday showed.

PetroChina's Dushanzi Petrochemical shut its 1 million mt/year naphtha-fed steam cracker and downstream units at northwestern Xinjiang province from August 9 to October 14.

The complex was scheduled to restart on September 29, but a technical problem with a compressor at the ethylene cracking unit pushed the restart date to October 20. But it was ultimately restarted October 14.

Shanghai Secco Petrochemical shut its naphtha-fed steam cracker on September 8 due to a fire at a refrigerated ethylene storage tank pipeline. The cracker, which can make 1.1 million mt/year of ethylene and 500,000 mt/year of propylene, was restarted on September 27.

Downstream derivative demand increased as Sinopec Beijing Yanshan restarted its polyethylene and polypropylene plants in Beijing on September 15 after a month of scheduled maintenance.

The plants comprise a 450,000 mt/year low density polyethylene line, a 180,000 mt/year high density polyethylene line and a 445,000 mt/year PP unit with three lines.

CHINA'S PROPYLENE IMPORTS Sep 2011 Sep 2011 Indonesia 0 1,575 Japan 47,541 21,490 Brazil 3,924 0 Malaysia 0 0 Philippines 0 3,040 Singapore 1,446 1,556 South Korea 78,610 39,830 Taiwan 0 2,201 Thailand 7,441 4,567 Libyan Arab Jm 0 2,998 Saudi Arabia 4,997 0 Spain 0 4,197 Vietnam 0 0 Total* 143,331 81,455 (Units: mt. Source: Chinese Customs)

*Includes also the countries that have been excluded from the list-up due to relatively small or sporadic volumes.