Malaysia's Pengerang petrochemical complex is targeting to start up cracker operations in the coming week. These were initially scheduled to start in early March but this was postponed for unspecified reasons.
Pengerang's cracker is linked to petrochemical units that have a design capacity to produce 1mn t/yr of ethylene, 1.37mn t/yr of propylene, 180,000 t/yr of butadiene and 165,000 t/yr of benzene. The complex also has associated downstream units that includes a 900,000 t/yr of polypropylene (PP) and a 750,000 t/yr of polyethylene (PE).
The crude distillation unit at the 300,000 b/d refinery is also operational and is currently stabilizing. Test runs at the refinery unit had started at the end of last year.
Pengerang has already carried out trial runs at its PE and PP units with imported feedstock ethylene and propylene and has since manufactured small quantities of on-specification product.
Petrochemical exports from the site destined for the China market are also expected to qualify for import tax exemptions under the Asean-China free trade agreement that will give it a competitive edge against South Korean and Japanese producers. China has a 2pc import tax for butadiene imports with South Korea being the country's largest supplier. China also has a 1.4pc import tax for South Korean benzene and a 2pc import tax for Japanese cargoes. South Korea is also China's largest supplier of benzene, followed by Thailand and then Japan.
Pengerang in southern Malaysia's Johor state is a 50:50 joint venture of state-owned Malaysia's Petronas and Saudi Arabia's Saudi Aramco.
