Chinese petrochemicals firm China Luxi Chemical has achieved on-specification production at its new olefins plant in Liaocheng, Shandong province.
Methanol feed-in took place on 29 November and on-specification ethylene and propylene was reached on 30 November. The plant, which can produce up to 120,000 t/yr of ethylene and 180,000 t/yr of propylene at capacity, is part of Luxi's coal-to-olefins (CTO) complex.
Luxi's upstream 800,000 t/yr coal-based methanol unit was brought on line at the end of 2018.
The firm issued a tender early last week to buy 1,000 t/week of methanol in the domestic market for its new olefins plant, which consumes 900,000 t/yr at capacity. The plant has removed 800,000 t/yr of methanol supplies from the Shandong market and is expected to lend some support to domestic prices. But falling methanol futures is still having a negative impact on prices.
The CTO complex also supplies propylene to Luxi's oxo-alcohol production facility. Luxi is China's largest oxo-alcohol producer, with a capacity of 780,000 t/yr.
Luxi is now partially owned by Chinese state-controlled trading firm Sinochem. The latter acquired a 39pc stake in Luxi at the end of October.
